Turning Turtle (Lawrence Kansas 1996)

Is anything more annoying then men who talk about their wives' pregnancies? I thought not. This is just about turtles. 

so the grass must have thought beneath the buffalo
this too shall pass
soybeans sprout through new sod lawns
in the still raw subdivision 
draped indolent over former farms
while deep below
ancient meteorites slowly tunnel their way up
saying in their rusting whisper
it’s turtles all the way down

by the side of the road one afternoon
a box turtle returned my stare from beneath
big bluestem
ordinary buffalo fodder here disclosed
by magnifying glass and dogeared manual
silly in its own way as timing the distance of lightning strikes
from tv flicker as timing breaths would be
cue coronado standing on his saddle
to curse a horizon that would not change
a perfect circle enclosing his expedition
in the center of the world
a very small beetle a very large jar

you and i unlike this turtle
did not intend the prairie
lying as recumbent Atlas to separate the coasts
lest they bend in war against one another
or that our bodies should elongate so
to trap you on your back
turned turtle
as we listened to news from the future tapping
nightly from your doubled belly

news that fell as stones to meet with those up digging
in brilliant light
already tumbled into gloss
perfect in their amazement to be present
in this present world
falling on those already undone
our arms stretched out supine
to receive them to receive this as a gift