DOING THE WORK
Dark nights of the soul may come again
This time I will have more candles
A LONG WAY FROM TOWN
A LONG WAY FROM TOWN
This summer
I will go back to the farm
turn out the yard lights
in the dark of the moon
and look up in four-year-old awe
with a smile
the Milky Way will remember
OFF TO SCHOOL
OFF TO SCHOOL
They sent me off to school today
round-roofed lunchpail packed
with all five stages of grief
Four layer sandwich of
denial
anger
bargaining
and depression
and an apple of acceptance
I don’t think I’ll eat the apple
WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL
WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING
TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL
Your dad’s initials
jackknifed deep in a desk now yours
The worst teacher in the world
all day every long day for three years
The best teacher in the world
all day every short day for the next one
Watching other kids get the strap
being watched by them when you got it
Beating the big kids in the spelling bee
taking a beating at recess for your trouble
Melting crayons on the tin protector
three feet from the coal stove burn
Home-grown tomatoes sogging
through home-baked bread
Clapping blackboard brushes
upwind of the cough-filled cloud
Green Dust-Bane and a barn broom
pushed across an oiled wood floor
All your enemies, all your friends
no more than twenty feet away
CAN’T TAKE THE FARM OUT OF THE BOY
CAN’T TAKE THE FARM OUT OF THE BOY
What I learned
of poetry from my father
is that the tractor sings
at just this RPM
SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE
SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE
The farmer prays for rain
and goes right back to work
he seeds the seeds
and he weeds the weeds
and oats his horse if he has one
but as summer goes by
he may scan the sky
with the boils and the patience of Job
and mutter
as Job might have muttered
while trying to set a good example for God
HORIZONS AREN’T EQUAL OUT HERE
HORIZONS AREN’T EQUAL OUT HERE
The East is fine
for color on the way to the barn
but by the time the chores are done it’s gone
The rest of the day we watch the West
That’s where the weather comes from
That’s the direction the grandfathers faced
when they got this far and found
what they were looking for
or gave up
unhitched the horses
and sat down to watch the sun set
GOOD ADVICE
GOOD ADVICE
Whenever anything got broke or lost
Kim’s mother would always say
Don’t cry over anything that can’t cry over you
Which is a good thing to remember
when your life becomes a country song
and your dog
and your wife and your truck are gone
Your dog will miss you right away
and cry with the coyotes all the night
your wife will miss you later – maybe
and cry for all the coulda’s that might
but you’re sadly mistaken
if you think that old C-10 Chevy
following the repo truck down the lane
is going to miss you half as much as you miss it
THE TURKEY SHOOT
THE TURKEY SHOOT
Small town Saskatchewan
raising money for the curling rink
Targets fifty feet away
and old bent-sight 22’s to shoot
The trick to bringing a turkey home
was not how well at the bullseye shot
but how fast you learned that life
is sometimes
three inches down
and two to the left of where you aim
THE FARM, THE RANCH AND THE SWEEPING SCYTHE
THE FARM, THE RANCH
AND THE SWEEPING SCYTHE
Sunrise can be brilly bright
and all day long
everything out to get you
The horse can kick or fall
the bull has horns of steel
Every machine is grinding its teeth
in wait for a chance to bite
and every snowstorm
eager to find you
too far from the barn
and stiffen you like the manure-pile cat
The sunsets worth surviving for