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Saturday, July 20, 2019

JULY 2019 -- HARVEST GIANT

This poem is dedicated to all my farm-raised friends who will recognize where my thoughts have gone as summer deepens and the hills of Eastern Oregon and Washington turn golden.


 HARVEST GIANT

A rumbling giant roams golden hills 
Devouring harvest treasure
Its headers gather in the stalks
Churning reel moves them onward
To a cutter bar of mowing fingers
Sharp and swift—the stalks come free
Then augers spin and conveyors carry
Stalks and heads to the thresher drum
Straw walkers carry the chaff away
To be blown out by the spreader
But the loosened grain falls through sieves
Down into the collection hopper
An endless cycle as this giant rumbles
Roaming ‘til its belly’s full
Then it pauses, signaling for
A tractor to pull alongside
So grain can flow through the unloader
Into a waiting transport trailer
Then on it moves, this hungry giant
Across vast fields of wheat
Day and night it’s on the job
Devouring harvest treasure