Tornado

The cornfield felt a need to write
its truth in growing green, to lend
syntax and order to each row.
Where ragweed tried to blur the sense,
it punctuated ends of speech
with a tall, straight logic designed
to harvest meaning . . . till the sky
turned black before the vacant mind
of wind, a roaring funnel shape
that clawed stalks and rows and field
into one blotted garbled word
only an idiot could read.

    Original Citation
    Etc. A Review of General Semantics 23 (Dec. 1966) 436.
    Word Count
    76
    Original Publication
    Date Published
    1966
    Complete Poems
    163
    Theme(s)
    First Line
    The cornfield felt a need to write
    Poetic Form
    open
    Twitter Quote
    Where ragweed tried to blur the sense, / it punctuated ends of speech