– Benedictine Abbey
Collegeville, Minn. (1996)
Inviting fire,
the prairie grass
sizzles in the wind,
dances from match-
stick dry to ash to
scatter seeds now
dormant with
their own grand
intentions of survival
as seven monks
labor over
long-handled
hoes & shovels,
wary, silent, deftly
circling in, armed with
prayer & moth-eaten army
blankets draped over
their shoulders to
hem in the hiss,
the flame’s
seductive pull,
a siren’s call.
Terry Savoie is a retired teacher, husband, father and grandfather. He received his education at the University of Iowa and has had poems published in the past 35 years in APR, Ploughshares, The American Journal of Poetry, North American Review, America and other journals.
