Fresh from the Farm

Road Trip 2022, Day Nine: Water

Kentucky River
holds the morning cliff paddle 
(limestone for horses)

you can’t find this view
west of the Mississippi 
(where it’s drought, drought, dry)

here? just paddling
along the river, the creek
till you find yourself

you might find turtles 
(soft shells, even, a bonus)
as you move along

just like the sliders
they slip into the water
hoping for the best

Kentucky has coal
but also cool rainforests 
(midsummer cooldowns)

enough rain will fall
in two days to flood a creek
drunk by my puppy

water is the life
that sustains these roadside farms
its blood for our blood

tractors welcome here
along these hilly horse farms
(barns worth more than homes)

you’ll rarely pass cars 
as you meander back roads 
in this life cycle

you might find castles
hidden in the morning mist
waiting to fill you

locally grown food
waiting at a king’s table
between life cycles

don’t let the rain win
it’s a porch-swing afternoon 
filling this cycle

i can’t capture this:
the words, the joy, the city
it’s all in this swing

i can’t capture them
filled with adolescent angst
yet so forgiving

a summer road trip
(there’s not without one)
they live it, breathe it

i can’t capture stress 
it won’t fit in this market
nor on this road home

the sound of leaf breeze
is impossible to miss
from the top? perfect

there’s just nothing like 
five giddy little-teen girls
breathing us all in

our poor Daddy 
outnumbered seven to one
without one complaint

handmade arts and crafts
working their way through college
the way it should be

artisans, trees:
intertwine their native souls 
to make Earth special

Kentucky kayaks
have defined my sister’s life
this past fifteen years

through all the algae
fighting through climate crises 
we keep paddling

life is a rope swing
make a running circle out
and don’t hit the tree

those just-jumped-in grins
can win our independence 
from a dark future

the sun follows us
across six midwestern states
and lights these fires

firecrackers rule
the soft sunset in the hills 
of Kentucky

we discover shade
from the afternoon fire
with native trees; food

Kentucky surprise:
shadows, trees, sun, nieces, joy,
progressive murals

don’t assume you know
the beliefs of a red state 
until you’ve been there