Prairie Rose

Taylor Cornelius

For Prairie Rose Henderson

If you had one thing to identify me by, it would be this belt buckle
because I’m the champion of the world.
I’m the champion of bronc and rode and riding, the champion
of clung onto the ridge of each pony’s back.
In Wyoming it’s all roping, the dogies hush and rustle in the night
call me “sweetheart,” call me star pinned onto the sky. This sweetness,
the sage and the cold air.

In the ring I’m a cosmic plume of ostrich and sequin, forget broken
tooth,                         head

smacked,                   sore

bruised.

What kind of cowgirl is afraid of falling? Look into the eyes of a bronc, 
there is soft gold, sorry glance, he knows 
he’s a buckaroo I bet, I bet 
it’s sore work for him too.
My heart still lies in Laramie, Prairie come back to the Indian paintbrush hills 
come back to the ring that dust and 
glory.

Taylor Cornelius is a poet, artist, and writer from Denver, Colorado. Her recent work is published or forthcoming in Poets.org, The Spectacle, The Shore, and Leavings. Taylor is a recent graduate of New York University’s MFA program in poetry, and was named a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship finalist in 2022. She currently works as a freelance writer and lives in Brooklyn.