Have I been too long at the fair?
by Michael R. Burch
Have I been too long at the fair?
The summer has faded,
the leaves have turned brown;
the Ferris wheel teeters . . .
not up, yet not down.
Have I been too long at the fair?
This is one of my earliest poems, written around age 15 when my family was living with my grandfather in his house on Chilton Street, within walking distance of the Nashville fairgrounds. I remember walking to the fairgrounds, stopping at a Dairy Queen along the way, and swimming at a public pool. I believe the Ferris wheel only operated during the state fair, so my “educated guess” is that this poem was written during the 1973 state fair, or shortly thereafter. I remember watching people hanging suspended in mid-air, waiting for carnies to deposit them safely on terra firma again, neither all the way up nor all the way down. Keywords/Tags: Fair, State Fair, Amusement, Amusements, Carny, Carnies, Ferris Wheel, Roller Coaster, Leaves, Dangling, Suspended, Fall, Falling, Limbo, Big Top, Big Show, Circus, Carnival, Sideshow, Gypsy, Gypsies, Summer, Autumn, Child, Childhood
Categories:
chilton, absence, allegory, allusion, analogy,
Form: Verse
October sunshine late afternoon
Time hasn’t fallen back yet
Six orange raspberries
Sweetly melted on my tongue
A second harvest
Missed by the catbirds
Found by the ants
A gallon or two of
tiny red and yellow
Tomatoes
To be halved and drenched
In dark Balsamic
With perhaps a slice
Of hot pepper
Yellow
Not the fiery red
And a sip or two
Of Mountain chablis
Then maybe some
Devonshire
Or Chilton
With that hard crust bread
To dip in
olive oil
Categories:
chilton, food,
Form: Blank verse
Tis Autumn and the tired trees
Drop off dead leaves as sap lays rooting
The long Spring war with gypsy worms
Has caused a few to come to terms
The humming birds are still around
But not for long we fear
The color change is way too soon
For such a lazy year
To fatten up and hibernate
In warm and cosy den
And venture out a time or two
To see the snow and then
Patiently enjoy inaction
In contemplative satisfaction
Fireside sipping wrapped up warm
Bearly educated
autumnal feelings (Chilton or cheddah with the whine?)
Categories:
chilton, nature, seasons, autumn,
Form: Narrative