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

JUNE 2019 -- PORCUPINE INSPIRATION

PORCUPINE DAYS

It’s been one of those days

Those days when you think

It may have been better

If you’d pulled up the covers

And slumbered ‘til noon

Rested ‘til three

Drowsed until six

Napped until nine

And then called it a day

It’s been one of those days.

 

NAPPING’S NOT FOR AMATEURS

Napping’s not for amateurs

It takes uncanny talent

You often have to make due

With unusual sleeping spots

There isn’t time for picky

When your eyes are drooping shut

You have to hope that slumber

Softens any less than perfect bed.

A couple of silly ditties inspired by this pin: Napping Porcupine

 

MAY 2019 -- ALL CREATURES SMALL

All Creatures Small 

Consider the snail . . .

House on his back, here or there,

Always at home.

Notice the earthworm . . .

Decomposing plant litter

Into garden gold.

Study ladybugs . . .

Keeping aphids at bay takes

Garden Amazons.

Enjoy the pill bug . . .  

Crustacean out of water,

Roly poly ball.

Savor the cricket . . .

Virtuoso of the fields

Night music for all.