So, something cheerful…I’m going to try to post more of that sort of thing over the next few weeks, I think. The world has darkness a-plenty and I’ll be occasionally writing about that, too. But here’s a poem I found by an author named Tony Johnston. She is a prolific writer of books for children who lives in California. This is from a book called Once in the Country: Poems of a Farm, written in 1996.
My Overalls
The best thing is their color,
old-night or early-dawn.No, the best thing is their limpness
when I hoist them on.No, the best thing is their looseness
like the soft skin of a pupNo, the best thing is their buckles
like a suitcase snapping shut.No, the best thing is their perfume
of cows and hay and dung.No, the best thing is their many holes
to let in all the sun.
Obviously I don’t own any overalls that are redolent of “cows and hay and dung”, but I do have a couple of old pairs–vintage!–that aren’t quite holey yet, but may get there sooner rather than later.
More poems to come!
