Suggested By A Reader--What Do You Think?

I go on and on
with the cleanup of tree trash,
the leaves, pine straw, limbs, and branches.
The long ditch is full of them
making a wheelbarrow load every foot or two
that I move forward.
I’ve raked some, and where it’s heavy,
I use the pitchfork to get it.


This pitchfork is actually too short,
but I’m near enough to the end
of my task not to go buy a longer one now.
But I should have done it.
My physical fatigue may not be
all that much worse, but
my mental fatigue certainly is.
I’m tire of all this shit.


I’m not alone in living
without cable or in being
a witless idiot because of that
deprivation, but I'm ashamed too
because some people are still
without electricity after hurricane Rita!
Americans are wonderful creatures;
we whine because the gold plating
came off our faucets and other such silliness.
If I had cable I'd be more aware
there's been a major earth quake
somewhere in Pakistan-India and that
tens of thousands are dead and that
many more are suffering more
than I can dream about. God
forgive the Americans who suffer
without their bloody damn cable TV!

---