Sunday, July 8, 2012

Magpie Tales 125: As Times Change, They Remain The Same


During my recent trip to my mother's farm in Texas, her neighbor, Mr. Hughes was cutting the hay as we were returning from Austin and San Antonio.  This week's Magpie Prompt of the painting "Chilmark Hay" 1951 by Thomas Hart, shared by Tess Kincaid, has prompted me to include some photos of that day in Texas (and a short poem), so timely and appropriate! 











        beast and machine 



              it seemed harder then.
            horsepower was less. 
             a pitchfork baled with
             armpower and sweat. 
          dirt encrusted hands 
        and dust powdered 
       crows feet capture
   every essence of 
toil and effort.

it seemed so. 
    but labor doesn't
           discriminate between
        beast and machine: 
             every harvest is ageless
           for all sons of the soil.



Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photos © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Painting image "Chilmark Hay" by Thomas Hart, 1951






8 comments:

  1. while modern conveniences have improved it i would still wager farming is one of the tougher jobs out there surely...

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  2. Evocative, moving take on the prompt; very well done.

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  3. Awesome pics!... And u bet horsepower is incomparable.... We dont even have horses (bwahahaha!...) kidding aside, my stepfather eho maintains our farms back home still uses "carabaos" to cultivate them. Fun to see... Looking forward to experience it again when i go home this year.

    JJRod'z

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  4. Every harvest truly is ageless...beautiful...

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  5. Your poem took my breath away ... loved the photos too, very reminiscent of all my summers on the farm.

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  6. The last two lines are specially meaningful ~ Love it ~

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