In The Owatonna Library, Ronald E. Shields links prairie and page, a black bear's ripple in grass, a cold lamp's echo, and the quiet touch between reader and Lakota woman. Past and present meet where footsteps of generations still move beneath our feet.
A black bear rears up,
ponders the long ripple in the grass beyond,
the space of its wake in the grass behind.
A cold hard lamp comes on over the prairie.
Its echo shines through a window miles away.
The Lakota woman hands me a book
our fingers touch,
the footsteps of a thousand generations
pass beneath our feet.