Spring Plowing
by Ted Kooser
West of Omaha the freshly plowed fields
steam in the night like lakes.
The smell of the earth floods over the roads.
The field mice are moving their nests
to the higher ground of fence rows,
the old among them crying out to the owls
to take them all. The paths in the grass
are loud with the squeak of their carts.
They keep their lanterns covered.
"Spring Plowing" by Ted Kooser, from Flying at Night. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985. Reprinted with permission
