On the Last Hill Before Oklahoma
“In a word, the boundaries of the Ozarks are vague to most people and subject to interpretation and disagreement by the experts.” Milton Rafferty, The Ozarks as a Region: A Geographer’s Description
At first
I felt the border like a paper cut
that nagged all the time for my attention
So I learned
a dozen places
I could drive to in minutes
to get to the border
see the border
invisible
itching
You ever hear a place call to you
the air or
the dirt
It was like that
Later I learned
the plains meet the hills
in paradox
intercut and interwoven
no books
no border
As much like hill country as it looks
I am living
on the plains
I took the house
on the last hill before Oklahoma
an echo made by the Boston Mountains
in their creation
Upland
in prairie grasses
same dirt
same air
Joey Brown’s poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in a number of literary journals including Rhino, The Mid-America Poetry Review, The Dos Passos Review, Compass Rose, Pinyon, Clare, The Chaffin Journal, Quiddity, Front Range Review, storySouth, Freshwater, and The Florida Review. Her work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize three times. In 2010, Mongrel Empire press published a collection of her poems titled Oklahomaography.
Joey holds an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She is a writing professor and teaches writing workshops.