John Deere Green Aside
Three pedals. Two feet.
This made no sense to Maggie.
She felt the need
for one more foot.
At home alone one day,
she decided to get behind the wheel,
her curiosity having gotten
the best of her.
With one quick turn of the key,
the engine started.
Juggling her feet,
she pressed all three pedals
to the floorboard.
The motor raced,
but the car went nowhere.
So, she took her feet
off the pedals
and the car began to lurch.
She had to do something;
the family tractor lay in her path.
She stabbed frantically
at one pedal, then another,
when the car bolted forward
landing the John Deere on its side
and the radiator of her car
spewing steam from beneath the hood.
No longer curious,
but terrified of the consequences
when her husband returned from work,
she saddled up the mare
and rode in search of darkness.
**
Fearing Foreclosure
Farmers need rainless days
before there can be a harvest.
No way that heavy tractors
can keep from sinking now.
Soybeans beg for rescue,
corn for drying,
and farmers for a yield
to pay back money
borrowed in the spring.
The ditches are disguised
with standing water
that has nowhere to flow.
Inside their barns,
farmers pace and pray
for respite
from the unrelenting rains
before it is too late
and foreclosure
steals their livelihood.
Thank God for chickens.
As long as the hens lay,
farmers will have eggs to eat:
fried, deviled,
poached, scrambled,
and hard-boiled
for egg-salad sandwiches.
So, while they await the sun’s return,
farmers will gather eggs.
**
No Stranger To a Barstool
Nellie was no stranger
to a barstool
on Friday nights at Wilbur’s.
The truckers parked their rigs
and gathered in
after six days on the road.
They insisted on buying
Nellie beer
until the tavern closed
and she could barely walk.
Her speech was as slurred
as a violin out of tune,
and truckers loved
to hear her swear
though sometimes her utterances
were anything but words.
She engraved her name
on every stool she sat on
at Wilbur’s Place.
She was a legend there.
When she dies,
she is sure to be enshrined
inside her favorite haunt,
but Wilbur’s
will never be the same.
