Farm

The sun had risen high in the blue sky
over rolling hills of farm country
causing a dry heat much as the roiling
heat of the home of her childhood
produced in waves upon asphalt streets

she knew the howl of a siren near by in
the close distance as she sat visiting
with her son her terrier mix at her feet
and he saw her puzzled look asking why
to glean the meaning of that sound now

for she recalled a time years past
in the elementary school days now gone
the drills that came, of getting down
upon the floor to hide beneath her desk
with her hands upon her head to wait

but as the memory flashed upon her face
her son smiled to say the neighbor
who lives not far likes to hear the siren
wailing as it does for not a reason
but he hears it every afternoon of a day

so she smiles with him to recall those
drills of her youth and hoping as she did
that her desk might shield her from harm
for it might come with her eyes shut tight
the all clear was given & she breathed a sigh

This post is is response to Jamie Dede’s Wednesday Prompt. You can see more of other poet’s responses at https://jamiededes.com/2017/07/12/at-the-dead-of-noon-a-poem-and-your-wednesday-writing-prompt. I visited my son recently in the town of Ritzville which has a very small populace, a very large granary and railroad tracks running through town carrying all manner of things from lumber to oil to grain and much more. But the one thing that made me take note was the siren which someone sets to wailing every day. Brings back memories and for some of you it may spark your own and for others perhaps not but I hope you enjoy the read. The photo is of my son’s house which I have digitally altered for this post.

A Sound of Siren

Google Image/Grandma Moses in Eagle Bridge, NY

i am traveling the byways of
new york reaching deep
into antique shops and
2nd hand stores looking for
nothing in particular and

there by the side of the road
in a small new york hamlet
i see posted neatly out front
a sign “Homemade Preserves”
so i stop and park as i am

intrigued and so i walk
to the front door of a
well-appointed house knocking
so as not to disturb and
who should answer but you

i’ve read about your rising
fame and as newspapers tell it
you are ‘never too old’ to
try something new and you
certainly did as you’ve shown

i feel at ease as you smile
at me inviting me in for
biscuits and jam with tea
your eyes twinkling so as
though we’ve met before

and i so want to know why
you never painted before
when you were young..not
that eighty something is
not…and so you answer

without falter that there
never was time with children
to raise and a farm to run
and happiness comes from
where it comes and i see

now that your life’s been full
so when i leave, on that
my traveling day and see
images of all the surroundings,
it is like i’ve seen it all

before on the canvasses where
you captured them in the
snow and sun, the church and
the town, the farms where
people live and i see then

that it really is ‘never
too late’ to do something new
when there is time and yes,
‘happiness comes where it comes’
in the byways of a NY hamlet

Please do go to Wikipedia to read more about this famous artist American Artist whose folk art style of painting became known and loved around the world. She began painting when she was in her seventies. You can find the link at http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Moses/

http://dversepoets.com/category/a-cup-of-coffee-with-a-famous-person/