Poetry Dispatch No. 36 | December 8, 2005
CONCLUDING A PRAYER by Leo Dangel
And then, Lord, there’s the man
who invented those plastic bags
on rolls in grocery stores,
the bags whose edges cling
together and will not yield
an opening for aging, tired
fingers—at least let that
man know his slick design
is so far from clever it makes
me hanker for the touch
of a scratchy gunnysack,
and he should know as well
how much hands like these,
that worked in soil and hefted
a shovel or a sledgehammer,
now ache to close around
a pitchfork handle for just
five minutes with him
alone in a box stall.
from THE CROW ON THE GOLDEN ARCHES, New Poems by Leo Dangel, Spoon River Poetry Press & Cross+Roads Press (2004)
poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 
If this country was smart enough we would have national treasures. Leo would be one.