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.

The Owatonna Library by Ronald E. Shields

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.