Our Blue Earth explores the melancholy dark side as well as the natural beauties of rural life as seen through the eyes of the author as a young man growing up in Blue Earth, Minnesota.

GRANDMA RAIN

When it rains hard,

I think of the small ring

I keep in a hollow book—

my grandmother

and her small hands.

She touches my cheek,

smiles. I tell her my name again

and for a little while sit with her,

sharing the warmth of her shawl.

Then as the rain slows,

I find myself alone again, and young,

and I promise to be good.