Asking Favors
Will one of you go
pretty please with
sugar on top
in my absence
a total stranger will do
salute the water tower
in my full name
Call out boldly
challenge that proud crow
who claims the grass
beneath it as his own
and I will be forever in
your gracious debt
Do rant and rave and
shake your fists at demon trucks
which shatter the quiet
of the Pancake House
As a further favor to me
let the iris blue of Sycamore Street
turn your head
as it turned mine years ago
Above all things just anyone
walk the rose fence foursquare
around Tulare District Cemetery
if the sky is clear east
of St. John’s Church
yell my best regards to the Sierra
- Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel
from "A Prince Albert Wind"