There's lots of turkey and
noodles
turkey and rice soup
turkey vegetable soup
turkey bouillon
turkey pot pies
It doesn't seem to be
centered
in Des Moines or Iowa City
just kinda all over
The harvest is pretty much
over
oh sure some farmer is
just
finishing up the 160
over by the river
It's have turkey and fall
asleep
until after Christmas
with all the annual
service work
It's not actual sleep
It's the kinda sleep
on automatic
There's the tree and
shopping
Cousin Shirley needs
something
Nobody is giving away her
secret
It's also the time of year
when Iowa
decides its motto
for the next year
Missouri next door
just keeps the same one
year after year
That's how boring Missouri
is
Someone will have a bright
idea
but as always down by the
river
it's hold that thought
and wait a hundred years
Nobody cares that
the great-great
grandfather
settled in Afton in the
1830s
or that the move back
from some other state
was a really good idea
You mean your family left
And now you recognize
your familial mistake
and you're trying to make
up
for it
That begins the Iowa Shame
There's no albatross to
hang
around your neck here
It's an empty corn cob
festooned with dried soy
leaves
and a fresh pig's tail
You wear that until it
falls off
Last year's motto was
Iowa
always the same
It came from the 1928
Iowa Bin of Great Thought
Notice there's only one
thought
in that bin
I'm told there'll be
another bin
in fifteen or twenty years
I'm thinking real hard
Barry G. Wick