I Am A Prairie Child

I am a prairie child!
I love the open spaces
And sunny places.
Mountains shut me in,
Hush me with their might
Cut me off from light
Until my soul feels warped and thin.

I am a prairie child!
I love the prairie birds:
Grackles in herds,
Thrasher, bluebird, crow;
The eagles, canyon jays^___
Shrill-voiced throughout their days^____
Are not my helpful friends I know.

I am a prairie child!
I love the prairie showers
And prairie flowers:
Red mallows and blue sage
Seem beautiful to me;
Forget-me-nots^___I see
The saw-toothed peaks that form a cage!

I am a prairie child!
I love the long hours to lie
Beneath the sky
And see no threatening bars^___
See miles of sky^___no patch
Like a tiny roof of thatch.
And, oh at night the million stars!

^__Edna Osborne Whitcomb

Contemporary Kansas Poetry
Helen Rhoda Hoopes
page 122
(Kansas City: Joseph D. Havens Company. 1927)