issue 6
// poetry
August Prairie: Bearing Witness
by Betty Benson
12 miles west of the Minnesota/South Dakota border
on flatland stolen in 1863
from the Dakota people
by my ancestors
in the distance
a plume of dust
rises
and falls as a lone
car navigates
a gravel road
whir of motor
faintly audible
through thick
summer air
in nearby fields
cicadas weave
taut threads
of dry sound
on this land even
the birds hold
uneasiness
in their hollow bones
about the author // Betty Benson
| Betty Benson is a poet, writer, and educational psychologist; she holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota. Her work has appeared in The Comstock Review, RockPaperPoem, The Avenue: A Mid-Atlantic Review, Glacial Hills Review, The Best of Choeofpleirn Press (2023), and others. She was a 2023 finalist for the Small Orange Emerging Woman Poet Honor. In 2025 she was awarded the Grace Potter Hearkens Award and was shortlisted for the Letter Review Prize. |
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