This is Michael Carey for Voices from the Prairie a weekly sampling from the rich soil of Iowa’s literary tradition. Today’s poem is "No School Today" by the Sioux city writer Phil Hey. It is about the cold Iowa winters when bulbs won’t light and the air’s hard to breathe. Well, no need to tell you about it. If you live here, you know and you know also the form in which the news of its arrival comes to our ears first thing in the frosted morning.

No School Today

Sioux City Community schools, no school
Anthon-Oto two hours late, buses run accordingly,
buses run accordingly at Wisner-Pilger,
two hours late at Ponca, check that, no school,
that’s no school at Ponca, school at Moville
two hours late, two hours late at Sergeant Bluff-Luton,
no school at Wakefield, no buses, no Head Start,
Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn two hours late,
Heelan no school, South Sioux no school,
no buses, IBP first shift two hours late,
Sons of Scandinavia Pancake Dinner cancelled,
buses run accordingly, wind chill thirty below,
Interbake first shift canceled, no school
Sacred Heart no school, Immaculate Conception
no school, buses running two hours late,
buses not running, second shift on time,
that’s on time, call your supervisor,
Albert Einstein no school, William Shakespeare
no school, Walt Whitman no school, Francis Bacon
no school, Isaac Newton no school, Frederick Douglass
no school, George Washington no school
Duke Ellington no school, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart no school,
light snow blowing snow thirteen degrees
windchill forty-three below, buses not running
people not running, no school no school
no school no buses no people no school.

"No School Today" by Phil Hey from his manuscript Works and Days still looking for a publisher.

For Voices from the Prairie and Humanities Iowa, this is Michael Carey hoping you continue to hear the music blooming all around you.