If you say
the noun
Nebraska
to any
easterner
their eyes
will glaze
like doughnuts.

But if you
go there
and experience
the exquisite
loneliness
of the Niobrara,
the empty
intensity of
the Sand Hills,
the primordial cry
of the Cranes
and more stars
than you could
imagine one sky
could ever hold,
it will fill
your soul
to bursting

and you will
never again
belong wholly
to your thin
strip of coast.

  ~mce