"The Invention of Heaven" by Dean Young

The Henry's Fork, Railroad Ranch Section

The mind becomes a field of snow

but then the snow melts and dandelions

blink on and you can walk through them,

your trousers plastered with dew.

They’re all waiting for you but first

here’s a booth where you can win

a peacock feather for bursting a balloon,

a man in huge stripes shouting about

a boy who is half swan, the biggest

pig in the world. Then you will pass

tractors pulling other tractors,

trees snagged with bright wrappers

and then you will come to a river

and then you will wash your face.

"The Invention of Heaven" by Dean Young, from First Course in Turbulence.

© University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.