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Life of the Amish Farmer
Humidity overheats Providence,
and bursts like a boil.
Heavy thunder, hail,
torrential rain and cooling.
The Milky Way drawn
by a single farm light
dangles out of the black.
By day, tobacco bends to the harvest.
The corn is holding green.
Esther and Daniel are blessed
with a new arrival, Lena.
The burial service for Lydia Yoder
is at 2.00 A.M.
We begin with the weather,
simple thrumming heartbeat.
Then, drawn to the sky,
witness our faith
awakened by its symbols.
The work, of course, is our Gelassenheit,
our sweaty submission,
a God tutoring to muscle,
to heavy footprints in the earth
and head bent low.
In practical epiphany,
the corn fields bind the air we breathe
like veins.
The child is born,
ripens everything.
An old woman dies
so crops won't have to.
John Grey
Australian born poet, playwright, musician. Latest book is "What Else Is There" from Main Street Rag. Recently in South Carolina Review, Spitball and The Halifax Review.
