“…the boy climbs to me…”…“A man’s job,” my poem

by Richard Subber | Dec 24, 2024 | Human Nature, My poetry, Poetry

doing what’s right…

A man’s job

I won’t sell my trees.

The balsams would go quickly

   at “cut your own” prices,

but I tell my neighbors, again this year,

there will be no cutting

   on this old slope that spills down

      to my little barn.

Day is darkening,

and I move among my trees.

This one, bent and broken

   in last winter’s snows,

has grown,

the birds of spring may nest

   in its green spaces…

and now, from below,

the boy climbs to me, his head down,

his father’s axe in hand,

he has changed since his father died,

he tries to do a man’s work,

he will have little time

   for baseball with the other boys.

“I told Momma I would find a tree,

to make a Christmas for Becky and the baby.”

So.

He holds his axe in both hands,

and he stands straight in my field.

I extend my arm.

“Go find a good one,

I can help you carry it home.”

December 1, 2018

My poem “A man’s job” was published in my sixth collection of 73 poems, Above all: Poems of dawn and more.

You can buy it on Amazon (paperback and Kindle),

or get it free in Kindle Unlimited, search for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *

My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut

“Write a six line poem, about anything…

click here

–

Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”

*   *   *   *   *   *