Cold January wind
Breaks your body
Like a car crash
This is only morning
Before the sun breaks
Before the cock crows
Before deathly cold
Thaws into simply freezing
Coaxing the tractor to life
You add the ether
You Cuss it all
You fill the wagon
And you’re feeding the bulls
You’re in the mud
In the shit
Making straight lines
Along the bunks
Put out hay
Get Stuck
Pull yourself out
Get filthy
Get yelled at
Thaw the fountains
Wage a war against winter
Gather the herd
Fix the fence
Break your back
Lose self-worth
Go to the office
Get yelled at
Realize.
This just ain’t right.
Feeding time again
Now go home
Eat some dinner
Turn a blind eye
Don’t pay the bills
Don’t call the collectors
Make the bed
Make some love
Cry some tonight
Before abruptly falling away
Realize.
God is a ghost
Inhabiting
The shit
in the yard
on your boots
in your heart.
Search your frost-bitten soul
Find absolute zero
And you arrive
Back to morning
With the Wind
And the old tractor
Smiling like Charon