Free verse № 152382
Dixon Country Store, Kentucky
Breakfast of biscuits, sausage and eggs,
coffee and talk about tractors and drought.
No one can figure weather like this,
maybe in August, but never in May.
No rain in three weeks and none in the clouds,
hotter than ever for April or May;
and to top it all off, as if earth were revamping
hard frost when the hay was just budding.
Twenty acres of soybeans planted again,
milo seed dead in the dust.
We might have had hay if it werenât for the frost,
corn holding on, but hardly for long.
Stories like this are of interest to me,
but for them it means college or not for the kids,
to live on the farm or dig coal in the ground,
abiding in heaven or moving to hell.
Sunny days beside fields, forests and creeks,
I pedal in safety from lightning and hail,
a visitor only, not to remain,
in a window of health between working and death.
10 comments
to me, a cycling tour is a great way to see the way of life in areas like this. the pace is slow enough to allow it to sink in, slow enough to really get "done" with something before a new thing comes along to try and understand.
i imagine this is the conversation you heard around you as you ate before heading out, a "fly on the wall" perspective, on the "outside looking in", etc. etc.
well done. the use of "May" only 2 lines apart (lines 4 & 6) is a little distracting. I don't know if you could use a different word choice (seasonal rather than monthly) for the first reference. or maybe these are actual quotes...
not sure if that revision would really work anyway; then you'd be repeating "August" two lines away from the first instance.
I actually like the S2 L2 line, so instead maybe focus on S1 L4.
maybe it could be something like: "maybe late summer, but not early spring."
be looking for some change, at any rate...
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