Poem (My Homestead) From the book {Bunny Hop} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

                             My Homestead

             The children play outside my door

Little girls screaming and giggling, turning cartwheels and tumbling to the ground

              My pool of shallow green grass

Yet there is not much left but a slip of a dream

       The sun rises and warms the brick wall

It brings a new day to this flat land where a boy and a sled finds a lonesome place

                A garden full of flowers

A town full of enough bees to fill a wine barrel

            A welcome face or a sour one

Tourism is streaming by on the wheel through a dying town of life

At the old General Store farmers used to drink and jest

Full of more gossip than the women they were hiding from

              Full of more liquor than life

Here in Homestead cats are king, they scratch at the door and own the easy chair

Each day the old sluggers reastaurant opens to fortune or fame

It is a deal a meal, a tiresome chore for cook and staff

That fills the welcome belly of tourist and local

My country home, country style, my country life

As the cat strides out the door, the light leaves this place

And the cows and coyotes begin their song in the grove

A train blows its loud whistle through the night amidst the pink neon glow of Zubers Restaurant

But by now it's nothing but a lullaby.

Poem (My Homestead) from the book {Bunny Hop} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas

This poem was written in 2003 and performed in front of an audience at the Amana Poetry Festival  in High Amana (the Arts Guild). I was a board member and brought Mrs. Mattingly from Newton to perform several songs during the show.