Mama had a
Heartsong-
She made it into a quilt-
While the baby cried,
She rocked and sang,
And thought about that quilt.
While the grasshoppers tore
Through our fields,
Mama blinked back
Fear
And sat to start that quilt.
When Gracie fell sick,
Mama put water to her lips
In between stitches.
When the corn wasn’t
“Knee high by the fourth of July”
Mama sat in her chair and
Finished that Quilt.
But then a storm came,
The kind
That only we Midwesterner’s know-
And the wind sent everything
Spinning.
Mama lost that quilt.

Mama had a heartsong-
She made it into a quilt-
She stretched it out and made a
Prairie
With a sky so big
And land so flat
You couldn’t see where it all
Ended.
Mama had a heartsong,
She made it into the prairie,
So that everyone might remember,
And so everyone could enjoy.
I, too, have a heartsong,
As big and wide and open as
The Prairie-
And so I will sing it as
That is the purpose for a song.