YOKEL ( 30 ) ~

Little Differences

I don’t know that much about furnaces

So I listen to Native

Native hasn’t read a book in twenty years

So he listens to me

Nowhere

Strange to see —

A sofa abandoned

In the woods

Off a dirt road

By the river we hike

No one around for miles

We turn the sofa back

Onto its legs, sit down

Call the dog up with us

Go~Along

stars

bright

enough

light

snowshoe

trail the

woods all

night

________________

Bob Arnold hails from a long lineage of 

lumbermen, loggers, and builders who settled in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, just south of the Green Mountains, in the 1700s. He began working as a builder in the 1960s and hasn’t stopped, having built homes and stone structures in his region of southern Vermont for over five decades. 

His books On Stone, a builder’s notebook

and Sunswumthru A Building address much of this world, while By Heart, pages from a lost Vermont  begins a storytelling which will connect with present day Yokel.

Since 1971 he has edited & published hundreds of journals, books and anthologies of other writers with his wife Susan. His books of poetry & prose have appeared almost every year since 1974. Bob also authors a blog : A Longhouse Birdhouse: surveying books, music, cinema and earth ways.

______________

Bob Arnold

Yokel

Longhouse

2011

YOKEL ( 29 ) ~

Dodge

Glassy shine

Of the old truck

Behind the bush

Beside the barn

5

At the far corner table

Of the fairgrounds in a

Cage nearly hidden by

A sheet thrown over

As if neglected stood up

Rooster with feathers made

Almost mossy but wild and

Dangerous streaks of

Yellows and reds bristle

When I dared to lift

Halfway the sheet

Spring Air

Rainwater —

Enough in the

Flat of a field

For a pair of ducks

To float all day on

6

When pig turns

It’s all head

7

Ahead of us a man

With long open curls

Of gray hair carries

With one hand and leaning

Into his side a cage the

Size of a table holding

Two full-size toulouse geese

And three magnificent slime

Pond green behaved ducks

Many Spring Seasons

What I take to be

Ducklings skittering

Again across the pond

As I watched yesterday

Are old leaves blowing

Over the thinnest ice

8

Kids think

Nothing of

Running 100

Yards to the

Rides running

Back the 100

Yards asking

Us for money

And running

Away the 100

Yards a third

Time laughing

9

Paced off at thirty feet

Pairs of men toss horseshoes —

Some young and careless, others

Older and seasoned, a few older

But having to teach someone a

Lesson — my favorite was the guy

About my age who pitched his

Shoes alone — back and forth

With a ringer every third toss

Dropping softly into the sand —

He never tired, never overthrew,

Scuffed his way stake to stake

And when I left him for a moment

To watch another team finding

Later his lot vacant, shoes picked

Up with him sitting across the

Arena under a tree watching this

10

Favorite places at the fair

Heard far off as we approach —

Bell of horseshoes

Shaking working horse ground

______________

Bob Arnold

Yokel

Longhouse

2011

YOKEL ( 28 ) ~

Peaceable Kingdom

1

We went to the town fair

For the first time in our lives

To watch the work horses and

The work horses were there,

Somehow they never disappoint you

Led out from trailers in wraps

Of leather harness, some gilded

And special for the day —

The horses could teach anyone how

To stand, how to wait

Their heads turned the other way

From a stone sled loaded by six

Men and one more on a tractor

Who are having a difficult

Enough time managing each

Block weight onto the sled,

One after the other until

What is expected to pull

Gains to 3500 pounds and

Later double that

Three-man teams talked

Amongst themselves soon

Showing they had trouble

Of their own making

A horse pair obey —

Names Frank, Chris, Josey

Revealed an intimacy from

These tough men with bloody

Elbows dragged by reins

Along the stone sled down

A twelve foot course hollering

Hold up there! and watching

Their feet and legs aren’t

Crushed by this plowing

Entertainment drive

How does a trophy and 

One hundred fifty dollars

Grab you — awarded to the

Winner — the horse teams

Feel none of this, it is

Another day blinking

Flies and hasty sun,

Horse paired up to

Horse because they

Work best together

The least we could do

Would be to hope a little

More grain and hay came

Pitched down for them

That night, a rightful

Pat on the hind quarters,

And any of us can walk

Over to where horses

Huddle and with

No celebration or

Much of a sound,

Wait until one

Lifts his head and

Large eyes brighten

We meet

Manure

Has a way

When you’re not sure

Of having you place

That finger to your nose

Makes No Difference

Work horses

Stand in the rain

The sun, more rain

Bright leaves and snow

2

At the fair

This cow who

Knows this farmer

Won’t go easily

To the strange

Water tub tugged

By rope and hind

Legs holding back

The pinkest nostrils

Breathing ahead of

All its body along

A porcelain edge and

Always how massive

But somehow terrified

The great animal

3 

Head down grazing

Goose thumps into

Fence post

4

Out in the open midway

Of flea market sellers

Unwrapping their tables

Look to the sky

Wondering with a

Neighbor hawker if it

Will rain — and who

Knows, none of us —

But one old-timer

Under a canopy

Slowly unpacking his

Nest of goods took no

Mind to the rain that

Seemed to be falling

All of a sudden as he

Stepped out of the

Tent and dusted off

His hat announcing

To no one it was

Only fizzling

(to be continued next week)

______________

Bob Arnold

Yokel

Longhouse

2011