Stuck In Mud

I had hoped to beat the violent storm's shooting hail, struggling through falling branches, some broken and some whole; my mutt with a rigid tail growled steadily and pinned his teeth to my jeans, and I stuck in mud, vainly tried to break loose, but nobody heard my screams. Trucks loaded with tar drove by and the burning smell made me terribly sick, someone thought I was the farm's scarecrow and threw a beer can at me, and he even hissed and cursed with a deriding tone for my disheveled shape; I waved like humans do, but he thought the gusts had shaken my hands with frenzy. Lucky me it wasn't winter, the warmest wind slapped my unconsoled face, naughty quails flew over to pick strawberries hanging from my torn hat; all of a sudden a few became a herd, and my body was being mouled into pieces, and before I turned into rags and bruises, the farmer came running with his rake. And I stuck in mud, I yelled for help, then all the birds flew away with discontent, the middle-aged farmer introduced himself with his sourthern friendliness; what would I have cared about his hospitality, if he hadn't pulled me out of the dirt, and hadn't taken me straight to the shower, and given me some clean clothes? This was my immediate need, and he saw it in my disgusted mood and slow thought, and with his witty Tennessee accent, he addressed me as sir as if I were his officer superior; respectable and kind, without prejudice for a yankee, he picked me up without effort, and singing a country tune, he lied me down on the back seat without slamming the door. Copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci