Missouri Gothic - poem

Desolate plain

Bereft of rains

Long dry well

Cruel wind 

Death knell

Clanging shutter

Overgrown gutters

Dry grass

Dry weed 

Neglected field 

Long gone to seed

Peeling paint 

Sun bleached

Rusty lead 

Into clay 

And water table 

Leached 

Plow forlorn

Broken and forgotten 

Corner posts rotten 

Abandoned farmhouse 

Inhabitants of spider and louse

All alone

Barely standing 

Where has your builder gone? 

Returned to dust 

As all things must 

Old cars

Rusty hood 

Hiding in 

The grotty woods

Empty fields 

Dry bones 

Dead orchard 

Nothing roams 

Midnight 

No light 

Hedge brush 

Melancholic sights 

Retaken by wilderness 

Painted shadow 

Lonely darkness 

Abandoned towns 

Forgotten faces 

Mourn for Missouri 

Her forsaken places