Saturday, September 26, 2020

Some Barbed Wire Fences

 

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse # 127
Hosted this week by the truly amazing poet Chrissa.

I was raised in the country

Where the only steel in twenty miles was

 the tractor

 the plow

 and some hearts

but the truest of cutting

 was never in the field

so my love became a cattle guard

 surrounded by a barbed wire fence

and praying for rain

 turned into wings

strong country fences never stopped a crow

only the cattle and the sheep

yet even when the crow makes it to the city

it’s heart still remembers the country in which it came

and climbing barbed wire fences is always dangerous

whether you are trying to leave or trying to get home.



12 comments:

  1. Carrie, I like your cattle guard, tough steel. Nice metaphor, t.he real thing, we never had one. Had to stop, open a gate, drive through, close the gate. That worked better with two, the none driver opens and guards the gate while the driver goes through. I'm being very literal here, but then Mrs. Jim fell through a board fence a few years ago and broke her hip. That called for s hip joint partial replacement.
    ..

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  2. The simple things are the best things.

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  3. This is wonderful. The sharpness cuts through the poem and the ambivalence--home as something that has to be carefully approached.

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  4. Oh my, that last line! That speaks volumes. I love it all, the animals, the metaphors, the whole shebang.

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  5. Your poem resurrected tons of memories as I spent summers helping my grandparents on their farm. I remember being a junior in high school begging to be absolved of those chores (wanted to hang with friends) and I am grateful today I kept right on working through high school. Thank you for writing this, Carrie.

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  6. Oh shades of my childhood! This conjured all sorts of memories. Our barbed wire fence was electrified, and my brother loved to touch it and grab my hand to give me a jolt. Great poem!

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  7. What a powerful image of the barbed wire fences.

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  8. Yes, that last line is so powerful! Love, love, love this poem. It brings up memories I have of being raised in Missouri farmland.

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  9. Luv the use of the barbed wire fence especially in the end caution. Makes for a Nice quote
    Happy Sunday. Thanks for dropping by my sumie Sunday today

    Much💓love

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  10. Beautiful and sharp, like a cold country wind and ice on the plough. Crow knows all the secrets.

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  11. "and praying for rain / turned into wings" -- oh yes, that's great!

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  12. And home is the truest place. Wonderful, Carrie!

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"Our best thoughts come from others." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson