There are still a lot of small to medium farms in Wisconsin, USA. Yesterday the farmers were out in their tractors. Something about Mother’s Day weekend is the time when farmers get the itch to plant and tend. Enjoy the poem and happy mother’s day to everyone who has a mother, is a mother, and the farmer “mothers” who feed us well.
Mother’s Day is Farming Day
Mother’s Day
is farming day
time to plant
laying seed in the
vast turned soil
tending it with nourishment
and a hope for rain.
Maybe farming
is a man’s way
of giving birth
through the womb
of earth.
Corn and beans
burst forth from his labors,
he nurses the masses
on his fields
and feeds the generations
from the never-ending story
of the land,
a story of soil, sun, and seed.
Whether worked by horse-drawn plow
or no till drilled seed
into the microbe rich soil
or dinosaur-sized tractors
sweeping former prairies
as far as the eye can muster
the formula remains the same
a birth of food and fodder
allowing a culture
to be relieved of the land
and venture forth into “progress”
for we are the children
of the farmer
who givers life, freedom,
and choices of other toils.