Truckers' and Others Poems & Poetry

As the other children bat portently
at tetherball
and foursquare

a boy walks a hot walk
wearing the full weight
of his angry red shirt

while the heels of his torn bluejeans
stir the gravel and dirt
that measure the schoolyard fence

he pauses only once to mimic
the wounded dog howl
of a tractors' brakes

© 2007 Rich Merrill