Work

Scott Whitby, 2020

I remember work

I remember what it was

I remember how it felt

Didn't like it just because

Five years old

Garden full of peas

Too little to do it right

Dried mud on my knees

Hoeing cotton

Just a little patch

"Be done by noon"

But always a catch

Mowed that yard

Pushed it when I was four

Wheel missing gasoline cutter

An acre or probably more

Cleaned that barn

Cow shit dust in the air

Still coughing now

Fared well but it ain't fair

Fed those pigs

Pond water from buckets

Knew then what I do now?

Guaranteed to say fuck it

Busted ice and put out hay

Didn't freeze, don't know how

Every long Winter long

But we made it, me and the cows

Packed cotton in trailers

So it'd carry more

Used just my legs

Made my thighs so sore

Once asked Daddy

"You ever have it so hard?"

He'd pulled cotton by the roots

Dried it then picked it by a fire

I know now

Work ain't so bad

It was then though

Worse than sad

But it pointed me straight

Like life's first kiss

What I could do and what I won't

Work made me this