Montana Home Poem by Kevin Moore

The mighty blue Montana sky at dawn
explodes across the plain with tidal force
in unabated, pounding waves of light
to roar unchecked along its westward course-
azure tsunami rolling back the night-
embrace Montana home with open warmth.

Hawk powers upward through this heated sea
from aerie crafted well and hidden high,
her haunting pirouettes wheel through the air
pitched gracefully, her keen and wary eye
to earth, her fledgling young her only care-
embrace Montana home beneath your wings.

Bay stallion, proud, beneath the cresting sky
calls out in voice tinged deep with ancient care,
to note the territory where he reign
as sentinel for yearling foal and mare;
unbroken, still, he wears no brand nor stain-
embrace Montana home with regal pride.

A lone coyote howls out for his mate
and from a distant butte her answer sounds-
their plaintive calls the cry of longing heat
unmarked by earthly claim or wedded bounds-
joined through this life by natural drumbeat;
embrace Montana home and heal her soul.

The big cat stalks with purpose to the creek
(in search of prey the shadows she becomes) ,
her very blood in tune with cubs in den-
she is the whirlwind whispered by the drums
between the beats, life’s cycle turns again-
embrace Montana home with sated eyes.

The woman leans at rest against a fence
now silhouetted by the fading day,
her dog looks up, his herding done, his one
blue eye on her; she smiles then turns away,
her beauty only heightened by the sun;
embrace Montana home with gentle love.

The deeply still Montana sky at dusk
laps quietly against the ebbing heat;
the velvet undergarment of the moon
and stars is pressed and folded like a sheet,
a harbinger of cooling darkness, soon-
embrace Montana home, sweet lullaby