The Tombstone

It was simply an old rusty tractor An eyesore for passers by A graveyard, at the back, of a pasture All covered with weeds and vines Curiously, on slow approach, I wanted a closer look Carefully climbed the barbed wire fence Hopping over a weed wild brook What once had been paint was flaked and gray Oxidized and turning brown Left to die, to bake in the sun And weather back into the ground Some of it's parts were stripped away Others hanging by wires The steering wheel and seat had strayed Yet four worn out flattened tires Days of use had long since passed The weather had taken it's toll A necessity which was built to last Still standing and left alone But to me it stood for something more It stood for time and growth Shiny and new a dream of yore Some family's lives and hopes How times have changed lives been sustained The wind and dust have swirled With growth of crops, growth of a country The growth of a starving world Though time had been unkind to it Now a tombstone out in the clear As I rubbed the rust from the relic's side Engraved was the name John Deere An original poem by "poemdog" Daniel Turner