Vanishing prairie hangs on

Isolated town foregone

 

Time long ago, grand premiere

History fading each year

 

Showing up on highway map

Road’s wide spot, taking a nap

 

Middle of farming country

Seldom find even one tree

 

Boarded-up wood-frame schoolhouse

Empty, forgotten courthouse

 

No longer town’s pride and joy

Critters, varmints now employ

 

Railroad track hides in tall grass

Recalling past trains, first-class

 

Grain elevator hanging on

Memories live, town’s swan song

 

Single street light standing guard

Night’s shadows, lasting vanguard

 

Yesteryear’s grandest of homes

Mystery for Sherlock Holmes

 

Faded sign for Ruth’s Café

Long absent dinner entrees

 

Movie theater shuttered

Smelling fresh popcorn, buttered

 

Few remember town’s past times

Hearing nature’s windy chimes

 

Past glory days, now long gone

Dim sunset, well past its dawn

  

During my teaching career, I taught 25 years in the eastern prairie country of Montana.  Today, many small farming communities struggle for survival while others such as the one in this poem live on only as memories.