Poem for Wednesday and Homestead Harvest

The Farm
By Joyce Sutphen

My father’s farm is an apple blossomer.
He keeps his hills in dandelion carpet
and weaves a lane of lilacs between the rose
and the jack-in-the-pulpits.
His sleek cows ripple in the pastures.
The dog and purple iris
keep watch at the garden’s end.

His farm is rolling thunder,
a lightning bolt on the horizon.
His crops suck rain from the sky
and swallow the smoldering sun.
His fields are oceans of heat,
where waves of gold
beat the burning shore.

A red fox
pauses under the birch trees,
a shadow is in the river’s bend.
When the hawk circles the land,
my father’s grainfields whirl beneath it.
Owls gather together to sing in his woods,
and the deer run his golden meadow.

My father’s farm is an icicle,
a hillside of white powder.
He parts the snowy sea,
and smooths away the valleys.
He cultivates his rows of starlight
and drags the crescent moon
through dark unfurrowed fields.

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Tuesday was warm and humid -- not terrible for August, but not nearly as nice as the previous several days -- and not very eventful. Paul worked from home since we had only one vehicle, we had lunch together, eventually we went to pick up the car and stopped at Home Depot for a nozzle for our kitchen sink.

We watched some of the Nationals-Orioles game, which the Os surprisingly led all game and won, plus we watched the first Brady Bunch episode of Chopped with Marcia, Peter, and Cindy, which was fun (Greg, Jan, and Bobby are on next week). Here are some of the animals and crops at Homestead Farm last weekend: