City Slickers On A Farm

City Slickers On A Farm

this city slicker spent last weekend at a farm
in Amish and Mennonite territory in Wisconsin
the earth was either iced or covered in snow
with temperatures a few degrees below

our cottage was once a small school house
it still had two blackboards, chalk and dusters
pictures of teachers and students from the ‘50s
fireside carpet and loungy sofas

loft with beds to rest our family
who breakfasted off farm bacon, eggs and toast
blazing furnace kept us roasty
supper, hearty beef stew with our hosts

glad for the muck boots from amazon
I crunched through snow thick and crusty
squelched round Mennonite dairy farm
giving strangers its warm hospitality

we saw cattle, feed and giant mixer
separate calves who’d just been born
vats which received cows 4% fat elixir
heifers and “anguses” with very short horns

then into the milking sheds the cows near stampeded
presenting us promptly with their behinds
we had to dodge splatting amounts of the stuff
for which behinds were expressly designed

my child went sledding down snowy freeze
drove the “gator” all over the shop
we helped our hosts tap maple trees...
it was hard to let the experience stop!