The Last Farm Stand
She comes laden across the bay,
and I am halfway down the hill to the ferry
when I say, “Emptyhanded is emptyheaded,”
returning to retrieve from its copper peg
a Grolier sack to stock my cellar
with pattypan, kusa, zephyrs.
All summer her business blossomed
with the kind of random offering
no shopping list would ever approve of.
Unlike Tellus and her syncretic children,
she wears the spelt crown of Ceres
whose harvests leaven dampened spirits.
Now, she takes her final stand:
sweet corn, a burl of beets, gnome-
like gourds, an apple pyramid the wind
will have the last laugh at. Her parting
words to those who to stay behind,
“Open all cupboards, count every can.”
Grandfather Rake
Hung with the harrows of disuse
in a weathered barn this grandfather
rake, missing several teeth,
cracks a smile through cobwebs.
Crafted of two willow shafts
the shape of a divining rod
dragged backwards under glassy skies,
its lit with moonshine.
In a party with three-legged chair
gossipers in creaks and sighs,
recounting life from seed to scythe,
no longer rejoicing in the sheaves.
Made for those it would outlast,
moseying elders who had seen a thing
or two on the farm go and come to pass,
recalls deep, lush meadow grass.
Once harmonized in sweeping rhythm
developers no longer grasp,
shadows of lives and land lost
play upon this humble harp.
Backfire
Your old F-250 stalls, then catches a spark
as it has done for a span of decades.
Checking the bed for the unreliable
Homelite, exhaust pipes rattle my axe’s handle.
The blade is sheathed in a custom fit
leather mitten, shrunk by snowmelt.
I turn the engine off in the leaf cathedral
you called your temple, load the final cord
I’ll split myself after you split for good—
*
Learn more about James on the Contributors’ page.
Submissions for the Best in Rural Writing Contest are already open. Find more details here.
(Photo: Thomas Vogt/flickr.com/ CC BY 2.0)
Sunday, April 13th, 2025 1pm EST/ 6pm GMT
The first online writing seminar of the year, “The Ol’ He Said, She Said: Writing Stronger Dialogue” will look at how to create more natural-sounding dialogue, as well as improve the mechanics around speech. The seminar is free for WRITER or SUPPORTER subscribers, or $15 for everyone else. More information can be found here.
- The Last Farm Stand and Other Poems by James Lowell - April 10, 2025