INSTANT KARMA

Because he could
a man shotgunned a
giant saguaro cactus.

Because it could
the cactus fell on the
man and killed him.

Harley Elliott was born in South Dakota, but spent most of his life in Kansas. Elliott was an artist and a poet whose many books include The Mercy of Distance (Hanging Loose Press, 2020) and Animals That Stand in Dreams (Hanging Loose Press, 1977), a children’s book, and a memoir. He earned his B.A. from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, and his M.A. from New Mexico Highlands in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  He taught art at Marymount college in Salina for many years, and as the coordinator of education at the Salina Art Center.

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Editor’s Note: Harley passed away unexpectedly in August of this year (2026). I’m thankful to have spend many good days reading his letters and poetry drafts, and to have walked the Arkansas River with him on the hunt for flint artifacts, learning all the while. It’s a rare writer whose smallest observations can stick in the mind long after the latest letter is re-folded and re-enveloped and shelved, and Harley was just such a rarity. -TRS