Diptych: Specks and Grouse

I.
Switchgrass: long pale streaks
with pink seeds atop.
Beetles dot the stems.
Sage blossoms splotch the grass
like burst plums,
lines of black ants climbing up
towards the color.
II.
A dusty gale
shakes from the prairie
insects and spores and petals
while the speckled grouse
floats down. Moving its feathers
like broad brown leaves,
it pecks for full fallen pods
that flock along the ground.