
  Concerning John
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       for my Aunt after my Uncle passed away a few weeks ago...


  Tobacco and striped overalls,
  Silver buttons & boots.
  The land stretches for miles
  And what could you do, John
  With the tall green tractor?

  Laugh from your belly
  With a scratchy laugh, go
  Lean back like a burlap sack
  Full of the harvest to be,
  Survey the great stretch beyond
  The swing sets and toy trucks
  Rubbing a graying, spiny top
  And laughing a scratchy laugh.

  Work the farm until dusk
  And talk softly to the sheep
  Who baa and baa into the night
  Until you are tired and hungry
  And come home to Dorothy
  In evenings of peace and comfort
  Like Oklahoma at bedtime
  Under that moon that raises
  The crop you've sewn so dearly
  In irrigation stripes whose fruits
  Are like your silver buttons & boots.

  And when I hear your laughing
  As I could not in the last church,
  Will I still come visit you
  As the child fast running away
  From the sheepdogs; crying
  With drying smiles in your tale.

                            - V.A. Blevins
