What I’ve Been Told

What I’ve Been Told

Local legend holds

     that somewhere, out here, beneath

this cold Kansas sky

     (the color of rag water

and mother-of-pearl),

     an old, battered bank box full 

of gold coins / diamonds /

     jewels / et-cetera, et-

cetera (stolen 

     from a bank in Missouri

way back in the day)

     lies buried in this open 

field marked with a cow 

     or bison skull, or ‘least that’s

     what I’ve been told, anyway.

Biography: Jason Ryberg is the author of twenty-five books of poetry, six screenplays, a few short stories, a box full of folders, notebooks and scraps of paper that could one day be (loosely) construed as a novel, and countless love letters (never sent). He is currently an artist-in-residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. His work has appeared in As it Ought to Be, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Thimble Literary Magazine, I-70 Review, Main Street Rag, The Arkansas Review and various other journals and anthologies. His latest collection of poems is “And When There Was No Crawfish, We Ate Sand (co-authored with Abraham Smith, Justin Hamm and John Dorsey (OAC Press, 2025)).” He lives part-time in Kansas City, MO with a rooster named Little Red and a Billy-goat named Giuseppe, and part-time somewhere in the Ozarks, near the Gasconade River, where there are also many strange and wonderful woodland critters. 

Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-large-open-field-with-a-few-clouds-in-the-sky-CCkGthuuf1w) 13. 5. 2026.

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#JasonRyberg #freshpoetry