‘Rushing to Get the Hay In’ by Reid McGrath

The Farmer’s Wife

He may as well be sitting on a piece
Of junk john-boat out on some open lake.
The field is shorn, divested of its fleece.
The hay is tedded and the rusty rake
Is resting now beside the tree-lined wall,
Next to the tedder, stilly looking on,
Like two quaint collies waiting for a call;
While there, in wagon, stacking, is my son.

While there, cat-black, looms a portentous cloud,
White-veined with light, or crackled, like a glass;
And there, my husband, donkey, that’s too proud,
Endangers himself and my son, alas.
But then again if we don’t have the hay:
We prob’ly won’t last winter anyway.

The Farmer

Oh press on honey we are almost there.
Most faithful tractor that I’ve ever owned.
Pulling a baler that pulls up the hair
Of Mother Earth which she has kindly loaned.
Which we in turn will feed to hungry kine;
And store in mow where dust shines down in slants;
And feed it out right through the wintertime.
The cows will spread it like some active ants.

I am not worried; I believe in you.
No rain will touch our sun-dried, fragrant hay.
My wife’s a wart who doesn’t have a clue.
No lightning will touch down on us today.
My son, too busy, cannot count the gap
Betwixt the lightning and the thunder’s rap.

The Farmer’s Son

I cannot think; it’s sad; I haven’t time.
The bales come quick the quicker that he goes.
My hands are creased and cut from the harsh twine.
We bounce along over the humpbacked rows.
I bounce and jerk and blist with hands quite numb;
The field like some flag striped without the stars;
My body scratched and broiled by the sun;
We war with Nature yet we love these wars.

Lo and behold I see the dark thing too,
Out of the corner of my mote-fraught eye.
I cannot look and yet I know the blue
Is flagging to the black that’s coming nigh.
As long as I’m his son: I cannot quit;
No matter if, with lightning bolt, we’re hit.

Reid McGrath is a poet living and working in the Hudson Valley.

Featured Image: “Thunderstorm over Dordrecht,” Aelbert Cuyp, (Museum: Buehrle Collection)