"Indiana End Times" by Ross Balcom, Frequent Contributor

Indiana End Times

Ross Balcom

there were cannibals

in the cornfields

the rhymes of Riley

and the songs for mother

were lost in a vortex

of blood and madness

the Wabash ran dark;

the face of evil moved

upon its waters

the farmer tore out his eyes

and juggled them like blind suns

the sky went out

the Hoosier folk-soul

was flayed and slain

on infinite smoking altars

and we staggered helpless

down the cow-path

of perdition

Poet's Notes: Apocalypses are popular these days, so I thought I would treat Indiana (my birth state) to one. An apocalypse entails suffering, and Hoosiers certainly deserve that.  The "Riley" referenced in the second stanza is the beloved Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), who often rendered his verse in Hoosier dialect. Like much of Riley's work, this poem has a rural orientation.