Shucking corn, the green
husks, like removing coats,
cloaks, capes, layers
from a mummy—
and then inside, the golden
kernels and the delicate
corn silk, fine
like my wife’s
night hair. What we know
of beauty is sometimes close
at hand.

Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019), KEVIN RABAS teaches at Emporia State University, where he leads the poetry and playwriting tracks and chairs the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism. He has nine books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner. Rabas is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry, the Victor Contoski Poetry Award, the Jerome Johanning Playwriting Award, and the Salina New Voice Award.