Tag Archives: poetry

                                  How I wish to sail away in my little skiff
                                  And high on the waters, live out the rest of my life.

                                                 – Su Tung-p’o (“Immortal at the River”)

Harold and Nettie kept accounts of all the local

farmhands in a shoebox, cashed their checks

and paid their bills on Saturdays,

the balance spent behind the neon blue

Burgie sign in the dark-half of the store—

worn men glancing-out into the blinding light

at the wagonload of soda pop bottles

we gleaned from weeds along the road

to trade for Cokes and candy.

They offered ‘Flying A’ gasoline before

they moved the grocery to the Yokohl

when they widened the highway,

keeping busy into old age until

a week after Harold retired

to his skiff on high waters.