Memorial Day, Minneapolis, KS
By Priscilla McKinney

Click-clack. Old rifles fire,
shattering silence; then cocked,
they fire again, three times in all,
aimed high by seven veterans
in shirt-sleeves, children spotting
spent shells to scavenge later,
as prizes for good behavior,
while adults stand reverent
under groves of shade trees
to honor local war dead
in consecrated gravespace:
tall granite column at center,
marked GAR, with graves below,
stone slabs for soldiers lost
in Civil and First World Wars,
with names like Martin Kibler
Company B, 21st Ohio Infantry,
and rows of white wood crosses
from Second and more recent wars,
wreaths hung on each as someone
calls the name of each man fallen.

The mayor speaks,
a churchman prays,
all sing Key’s anthem
with hands on chests
and lowered heads.

This is the heart
of the heartland,
meticulous acres of plots
and stones, flower-strewn,
all bordered by green wheat
shimmering in sunlight
stretched to horizon’s edge.

On this day, one cries,
not only for those fallen
but for the country’s
precious heart, so pure,
they fought to save.

— Priscilla McKinney teaches English literature at Kansas University. Poet’s Showcase features work by area poets. Submit your poetry via e-mail with a subject line of Poet’s Showcase to mpaget@ljworld.com or send typewritten (not handwritten) submissions to Mindie Paget, 645 N.H., Lawrence 66044, attn: Poet’s Showcase. Teen writers should submit their work to the 18 & Under page at teens@ljworld.com.