Sunset

 

Power throbs through his hard-muscled body.

Rough, thick hands command the massive machinery.

Perched tall between huge tractor tires he

plows,

plants,

picks,

mows,

bales.

The sun burns deeper into his farmer tan.

 

She should be coming soon,

         bringing supper to the field….

 

“Time to eat, Henry,”

the girl says loudly.

Settled between the chair’s thin silver wheels,

his bony, grey-veined hands set him to

rolling, rolling,

the power ebbing from his stooped, frail body.

 

The EZC thermometer says 90 in the shade

at the Country Manor nursing home.

Elaine Tweedy Foley

(while IWC student)

First place, College Division

2001 lyrical Iowa