The Old Farmer Too

The Old Farmer (2014)

The Old Farmer Too

On a walk over a hill, alongside a green field, I saw the old farmer again just the other day.
He didn’t look up as he walked, his mind worked the list of to-dos without a word to say.

The tall strong farmer moves a bit slower now, hunched a bit, but powerful beyond appearance.
Generations worked this land, and it always needs the work, just with less interference.

We wandered between the buildings, through doors and gates mostly made right on the spot.
With creative know-how evident all around me, its untold cost, that couldn’t be bought.

Equipment was scattered around formerly open spaces, only the field’s shades of green in a row.
Traffic whizzed quickly by, appreciating the symmetrical view, but I only heard the cattle low.

The farmer’s eyes darted from this thing to that, and I guessed the spaces between were;
Some personal measurement in years, a lifetime on this plot, no clearer than a familiar blur.

I walked beside the old farmer too, and he moved deliberately, if not slower than he wished.
But his chosen words are as perfectly placed as the countless sunrises he never missed.

Even now there is a twinkle in his eye, when his mind wanders past the known to the how.
And even though it may not exist on the farm today, he creates more than means would allow.

The farmer might not say but the mind never forgets, holding on like a cold steel trap.
Words will come and the message won’t be lost where the next generations overlaps.

Stories of all that’s done on the farm are understated while impossible for the rest to comprehend.
It’s hard work but these acres and this old farmer, well there couldn’t be a more perfect blend.

As the sun was about to disappear, the old farmer finally went inside for the day’s first rest.
Working harder than the neighbors with far less of the world’s stuff to show, yet infinitely blessed.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake,
Don’t forget the old farmers and their families, for they surely giveth so much more than they take.