LatinosUSA

Feeling farmerish in a flat deck Ford
But there is a novel on the seat
About the way dogs think
I wouldn’t show it to my neighbor
Lest he think me a transplanted fool
 
Sign at the well says if you drink this
We won’t be responsible
But town water is yellow with treatments
This community well water
Is clear as the sky in my tank
 
Tank takes twenty minutes to fill
That time is all mine
I sit in the shade of the pump shack
Reading while being scolded
By young gophers and old magpies
 
Funny thing about water
Ditches are full up
Culvert washed out in the coulee
Whole country in flood
And I’m hauling water
 
Ground water at the farm smells bad
Dugout water only fit for stock
Big cistern underground for the house
Septic tank and field outside
Every drop in every drop out
 
Seven trips to fill the cistern
Takes most of a day and half the novel
But now I know how a dog thinks
And that’s worth knowing
Close to the top now watch don’t waste
 
Even in a motel shower
Where I can stand as long as I want
I won’t
Water is why I watch the sky
Read the rain gauge and piss outside
 
Water is what I think about
What I talk about
What I live with or die without
A tap left  running
Is a mortal sin.
 
Copyright © 2024 Gregg Norman 
All Rights Reserved

Gregg Norman lives and writes in a lakeside cottage in Manitoba, Canada, with his wife and a small dog who runs the joint. His poetry has been placed in journals and literary magazines in Canada, USA, UK, Australia and India. He is also the author of four published novels and a novella.