farmpoem #14
this old ledger probably 1900
maybe earlier it’s from a box
of stuff from my folks’ house
which was full of stuff from
my grandparents’ house I have
it all I’m trying to sift discard a
slow job for instance this ledger
shows only names and dates of
the breeding of long dead cattle
no use at all but how can you
pitch out a volume whose inside
cover prints such helpful info
(courtesy of the publisher) as
a ten-ton freight car has the
carrying capacity of 60 barrels of
whiskey or that it takes 5 pounds
of seed to sow an acre of parsnips?
2012 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.
