============= Treece Jeanice =============== Roland James =========================

Shrilled seeing first glimpse of my lake through trees and brush.
For the 56th year my soul calms. I hug Mom in loves hush.
The cabin is as old as me, built at my birth, by my adopted Granddad.
Windows we replaced last year, as they were rotted out really bad.

One always thinks of all Illinois as Chicago. Wrong!
Tons of farms, with grasslands and meadowlarks in song.
The Mississippi River outlining the West.
And farmland covering almost all the rest.

But me and my sweet love are taking the freeways in.
The eight AM traffic into Chicago make truck drivers sin.
Seeing Sears Tower thrusting out of the great city ahead.
Put all fears of the moving barriers completely to bed.

ILLINOIS

(Prairie State)