Summer was dry
but the farmers forget
and plow the dead stalks under.
Today the wind is lifting
the first loose dirt away.
The elms in the Mahnomen park
are striped for felling,
and sugar beets litter
the road at sharp curves.
Tree trunks lay scattered
where they landed after
the tornado of 1958.
Outside Crookston a yellow dog
just made it to the ditch
to die, and farther ahead,
a mile from the border,
old shoes line the shoulders.
Canadians are home now,
wearing new ones.