The Homestead

The Homestead

Heat waves and tobacco-spitting
grasshoppers in late summer arrive.
She sways in her rocker, pearling, knitting,
Mormon crickets swirl and dive.

Grasshoppers in late summer arrive,
and threshers level the winter wheat.
Mormon crickets swirl and dive,
she knits and pearls in radiant heat

And threshers level the winter wheat.
The old man counts his chickens.
She knits and pearls in radiant heat.
Dust in the air from a combine thickens,

and the old man counts his chickens,
like gold nuggets in a miner's pouch.
Dust in the air from a combine thickens-
She says "Smile Papa, Don't be a grouch!"

Like gold nuggets in a miner's pouch,
his gold teeth flash with a crooked smile.
He ambles to the porch in a tired slouch,
and she pleads with him to sit a while

His gold teeth flash to where she's sitting.
She always makes him feel alive.
Heat waves and tobacco-spitting
grasshoppers in late summer, still thrive