You need to stop and read the signs. You don't have to, but you need too. They are written in as plain of language as "Ned's 3rd Grade" reader, if you think about them, and take a chance. The gate to understanding can all be read in the gate along side the road.
Two wheels. Iron wheels on either side, showing the wagon's marks that made the road, that carved the entrance to the place as tough and strong as the road to eternity, to land bought and paid for, making the way for neighbors and family to come and go.
The hand plow that took a horse or mule to pull, that would cut through this land and make rows for the grain and the food that would grow and make up meals for the ones who lived here, and pierced the soil into the closest thing to submission, for the growth that would provide any extra to those who could use it.
The tall trees that kept the shade and the soil green with new growth, wetter with the rain, and a cool place to stand and rest when overalls were soaked with the sweat of the day.
The windmill, powered by the breeze, with its tank above ground, stirring up the depths of the soil, scrounging for the taste of cool, clean water, offering its sustenance for green grass, gardens with growing plants and water for the cattle which stand to the far right.
The winter is displayed now, no leaves on the trees, quiet fences, holding the inside in and the outside out, and keeping the world at a distance. Read these signs, there are many of them. Just look and see.
Ralph Peck
Photo by Ralph Peck
Old Hiway 88, north and a tiny bit west of Claremore, Oklahoma
Comments