Millie and Carl
Millie is changing the wheel
on her mower
when I encounter her one day.
Around those tools and
tires and bolts,
she clearly knows her way!
I ask her to tell me about the farm,
if she would not mind;
It was clear that for quite a while
it has been in some decline.
Four silos no longer filled,
A barn with just one cow.
She still keeps the old place going,
though she is a widow now.
She and Carl bought that farm;
fifty-six years she’d endured.
They were young and optimistic then,
and would conquer the world for sure.
They could not have known the changes to come,
Plummeting prices, mounting debt
too much exasperation.
Carl said it was too hard a life
To pass to the next generation.
The children grew up to leave the farm
And created lives of their own.
The grandchildren still often come
so Millie doesn’t feel alone.
Eva milks the cow in the barn;
Carson loves the tractors too.
Maybe they will take the farm
And turn it into something new.
Successes, failures, memories and joys;
Millie had seen them all firsthand.
Mostly they have planted themselves
There in the barn, the house, and the land.
By Nancy and Gerry Rehkugler
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