Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
PoetrySeptember 9-16, 2013 issue

Missile Silos, North Dakota

Kathleen SpivackMarch 12, 2014
Furred, the horizons
are both calling and escaping:
there must be an edge.
Near the bases on the prairie
the farms in silhouette seem homesick;
one can imagine entering their kitchens
and from the stubbled fields
birds rise up, hopeful.
Someone stands at a window
looking for a limit to vision
but the fields press out flat
in every direction
like alternatives with equal value
and young girls who dream
of leaving home
go out with the boys from
the Air Force Base,
pressing their hot doomed bodies
together on back seats of cars.
All day the boys sit
before consoles, staring
at buttons and flashing lights,
waiting to launch
irreversible missiles
on cue, the trajectories blazing
over these flat fields,
over the sky, grand and clanging,
startling the farms,
the right angled roads,
low ceilings and huddled rooms.
Kathleen Spivack
Kathleen Spivack’s memoir, With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Plath, Sexton, Rich, Bishop, Kunitz, was published recently by The University Press of New England. A History of Yearning won the London Book Festival First Prize, 2010. This poem was the third runner-up in the Foley poetry contest 2013.
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

Most popular

1
The Catholic nun who brought faith and social justice to New York’s airwaves for over 50 years
Helene Stapinski
2
Interview: Kerry Weber on life as a working Catholic journalist
Grace Lenahan
3
Pope Leo made 8 new U.S. archbishops. Here’s what they think about peace and unity.
Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service
4
Pedro Arrupe, Hiroshima and the Sacred Heart
Dawn Eden Goldstein
5
Podcast: How Pope Leo XIV was elected
Jesuitical

Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more.

Director of Worship and Music
Jobs
Teaching Religion to Adolescents – An Online Course
Spiritual Resources
The Journey Continues – Online Supervision for Spiritual Directors
Spiritual Direction
Teaching Religion to Children – An Online Course
Spiritual Resources
A Church of and for the Poor – An Online Course
Spiritual Resources
See all Classifieds

The latest from america

Pope Leo made 8 new U.S. archbishops. Here’s what they think about peace and unity.
Pope Leo XIV urged new archbishops to help him foster unity in a church rich in diversity. Eight of those new archbishops are from the United States, and they spoke to Catholic News Service about how they can help promote fraternity in today’s polarized world.
Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service June 30, 2025
Podcast: How Pope Leo XIV was elected
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Christopher White about his new book, ‘Pope Leo XVI: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.’
JesuiticalJune 30, 2025
Kerry Weber, incoming president of the Catholic Media Association, and executive editor of America Magazine, speaks June 26, 2025, during the Catholic Media Conference in Phoenix. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Interview: Kerry Weber on life as a working Catholic journalist
Kerry Weber is an executive editor for America. On May 20, 2025, the Catholic Media Association announced that she was elected president,
Grace LenahanJune 30, 2025
Pope Leo XIV calls new archbishops to model ‘unity in diversity’ for a divided world
"The whole church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between lay people and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the pope," he said during his homily at Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.
Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service June 29, 2025