Our Lady of Allen, South Dakota be with us.
Our Lady of turquoise towers and water pumps,
of barbiturate skies barreling o’er dry granaries,
bucolic at the continental pole of inaccessibility.
Our Lady of Brundage and Wounded Knee,
pray for us. Average family income: 2300 USD.
Our Lady of Tagg Flats, think of us sometime.
In Elmo, Montana, in McNary, Arizona, near
Parmelee and Dunseith, steer our grubby tykes
through the promises of Sunday Pay Per View.
Our Lady of Boys Town, weep for us in aisles
bleaker than Wal-Marts of Belden and Muniz.
Shampooers and fast food fryers, nanny aides,
and drivers work for greasy wads in zippered sheets
stained with love. Our Lady of Del Mar Heights,
what’s the dillio? Lady of Calio, Madonna of
Oglala, Virgin of Las Lomas, Mother of Whiterocks
and Winslow West, scrunchies and lip gloss flake
about your departing feet. Glam metal, nourish us.
Roseanne reruns, comfort us. Prairie casinos, protect us.
I saw Our Lady in Spring Creek and North Hartwell,
in La Rosita and Nageezi, by Lago and Lukachukai
looking bedraggled about the eyes. Her wrinkles tied
in crow’s-feet, bellied by refrigerated mac ‘n’ cheese,
hair-curler stiff, stinking of lye and Marlboro Reds,
cleaning ranch condominiums littered with coolers
of heavenly Coors Light. Our Lady of Sheep Springs
wrestling for Friendly’s blintzes. Our yellow-lipped,
chubby-wristed mother, flowing in tie-dye muumuu,
cucumber sundress, pebble-fisted, softly skirting along
kiddy pools on unmown lawns in babyshit peep-toe
platforms, by handle-bar streamers humping paydirt.
In Sawmill and La Puerta, bring Kool-Aid coupons
and save us our White Castle gallon-kind big slurps.
Give ever your grist to the grits of highway rest stops.
Our Lady of Wanblee, help rebuild the bleachers at
Butterfield Regional Middle School where the boys
grope at their camera phones in shadow, zit-stippled,
molested by high-voltage power wires arching across
aluminum meadows, steel ladies tacking clotheslines.
Our Lady of Gentle Snowfall, Mudslides and Indoor
Home Plumbing. Our Lady of BuzzFeed and Tyler Perry.
Our Lady of Pooper Scoopers and Ketchup Dispensaries.
Our Lady of Skechers and Old Navy, of Dental Dams
and Grease Trucks, of Single Mothers and Closet Cases,
Road Rage and Outlets, of Trailer Parks and Cereal,
Our Lady of Monday Night Football, Our Lady All About
Consumer Confidence, RVs and Veterans—be with us now.