Plowman

PLOWMAN 

(for Bill Troy, and Messer’s generous 
free Plowman Day.) 

Not soon enough comes the thrill of snow!
for plowmen who beckon the blizzard’s fall
anxious to use his craft of geometric cut lines 
and angles of  blizzard white in reverse drive 

so shines a man’s intuition of spatial awareness 
a gift more like knowing than any clear thought
to read white-out screens  of sky and windshield
the  plowman’s art performed in winter snow

plowman craves the joy of plowing a first white
applying his clever angles to defeat the weight 
of wet snow’s higher walls and piled tonnage
hands on a wheel he shifts to feel the road
with a hot coffee steaming to favorite tunes

he’s cranking until the windshield white-out 
demands an all senses alert mode in quiet  
‘cause backwards driving on a narrow road  
calls up deeper focus in rearview mirror reads 
as white storm fury closes heavier curtains
and packed snow tires treads slide like ice 

a rush demands radio off  full concentration
at the edge of thin roads’ sagging shoulders 
ready to jump the heart and pull down a rig 
and a plow like a trick spirit hand thrust up 
as if the old camp road was bad with karma

plowman and wheels of a machine in motion
the best Plowman’s final look is edged just so 
his framed snow art soon melts with a season
like those  sand sculptures on a summer beach 

Charles Eastland 
from Amazon Kindle eBook: The Car Has Ears
Copyright © | Year Posted 2019

Poem

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