Saturday, April 30, 2016

Unanswered Prayers


Unanswered Prayers

A pictureque faded red barn,

sun-stained and time faded,

 reposes amongst shady verdant poplars

with natty squawking chickens

running beneath,

chased by a ginger-haired boy

In riveted scuffed denim overalls,

in a cloud-studded breezy scene

encompassing a white clapboard

farm house festooned inside with

gingham on windows

that overlook vistas of tall corn tassels

with fat crows

roosting in field boundary bushes

to no notice of lazy cows

grazing in adjacent pastures.

All parts of a pastoral picture

on an old farm bureau calendar

tacked up on a grimy gray wall

inside a linoleum floor kitchen

part of a shack next to the coal fields

in rural Pennsylvania

where a work worn woman

in raggedy flowered chenille robe

irons her one “good” dress

which she will wear to her

only social outing at Church Sunday

where, amongst her too loud

“Hosannas’,” she will pray for a day

when that farm would be real.
                                                                                                       -Jerry Wendt 2016

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