Elegy

Westward stunned, Kansas must have shrugged shoulders
and shook heads, ago, and wondered who the hell you were.
Bigger, bigger, than life
you grew and later sang songs in joint ache and the daily strife.
In between rose great literature, teaching, strewn notes in manilla folders,
the pervading dust, your rumbling guffaw and wind-whipped anger.

Inward, you slept through orbits spun and questions posed.
Lambs did not go lost. They tried for other pastures while at your desk you dozed.
You hemmed, hawed,
roared bellowing in noontime meetings and jawed
vast tales of travel, recipes, masterpieces, parties, even jeopardy sadly.
As Big Daddy,

outward, some bloated energy rolled. Everyone knew this.
Everyone knew you. You made sure that they would.
And then, not suddenly, done.
Your heavy curtain call was one last lesson, a blown kiss
to our world and a ta-ta wave that very well should
leave all lingering criticisms shunned.