During the last month of the HomeWords column, we’re running longer cinquain sequences that have arrived at our door from across the state. The American Cinquain is just five-lines long, its 22 syllables fractured into a 2-4-6-8-2 form.   
Our penultimate HomeWords poem is full of domestic detail. It comes to us from Audrey Coleman of Lawrence. A Kansas native, Audrey is an archivist and museum administrator who lives with her husband, two children, and one venerable dog.

PIED A TERRE (lit.)
bath tub
ring. tall grass/weeds
warm in our worn wagon
rut. our own dusty earth-wallow.
hoofprint

lands here.
baby lambs a-
bed. and you, book-in-hand
tend fire. unscathed, we escape
full flight.

in turn
cracks open, weep
while dirt shifts strong but not
square, nor plumb. swift how the time comes,
calling.

me, he:
all us help here
break and back in, again.
slice of succor satisfies peace,
for pie.
To read past HomeWords columns, visit www.kansashumanities.org.
The Kansas Humanities Council is a nonprofit organization that supports community-based cultural programs and encourages Kansans to engage in the civic and cultural life of their communities.