Up In Smoke

tobacco barn in Calvert County, MD (source)

My daddy was a farmer

in the Old Line state

We never had much coming up

but food was on our plates

When he died, I got the land

I work it to this day

but my son, he has to leave

'cause farming just don't pay

I swear to the Lord above

I'm a peaceful man

but when they curse my family name

I've got to take a stand

It ain't my fault

if what I farm

has brought your family grief

It's part of Southern heritage

I grow tobacco leaf

Now I make an honest living

and I think it's pretty sad

The schools are teachin' children

that what I do is bad

They're tearing down tobacco barns

My family's goin' broke

My way of life is goin' to Hell

Tradition up in smoke.

traditional Southern MD tobacco barn (source)

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Dirt Farmer (Marian's Music Prompt-Tribute to Levon Helm)

Summer Song

source

 Through lazy afternoons the summers pass

I walk barefooted through the new mowed grass

Grasshoppers gambol underneath my feet

As August moves to its unhurried beat

A hummingbird sips nectar from a flower

Hypnotized, I lose track of the hour

The scent of honeysuckle fills the air

Its sweetness nips my tongue and lingers there

The silken wings of butterflies alight

On fragrant flowers colorful and bright

Once the pace slows down I hear the hush

The summer's torpid tempo can't be rushed

Again I learn that here is the sublime

In this moment, living all the time.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form For All, Clarian Sonnets

                         

Sometimes You Drive

Never Easy by untaintedsoul

Sometimes you drive the road
Sometimes the road drives you
When you don't know the difference
Every place is the bad part of town

Sometimes the road drives you
Makes you do things you don't want to
Every place is the bad part of town
And all the strangers know your name

You do things you don't want to
When you give up the wheel
All the strangers know your name
But you don't remember why you came

When you give up the wheel
And you're just along for the ride
You don't remember why you came
Don't care if you make it home again

You're just along for the ride
You gotta keep up the drive
Don't care if you make it home again
You let the road decide

You gotta keep up the drive
Though you can't say if you'll arrive
You let the road decide
Between dead and alive

Though you can't say if you'll arrive
When you don't know the difference
Between dead and alive
Sometimes you drive the road.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wednesday Challenge, On the Road
and Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Pantoum

Licking the Wounds

You don't want to know me
You want photo ops
Sound bites for the bridge club
Bragging rights
for a well-bred pup
Throw the bitch a bone
Do some tricks for the nice ladies
then kick the mutt with your Ferragamos
for getting your rug dirty
Is it any wonder
I shrink away
when you reach your hand out?
or that I shed my collar
along with my milk teeth
so long ago?

submitted (too late)for dVerse Poets Pub, Meeting the Bar, Allegory so for Open Link Night, Week 42