Hoedad

I throw my hoedad
into sandy loam, thinking
of my children's children as I
bend to plant a tree.

I throw my hoedad
into a rock and experience
more fully the pain in the
swollen joints of my right hand

I throw my hoedad again
and again and again and again and again
in the strange and savage
dancing of the mad tree planter
leaving lines of pines across
the hills of Tennessee

Eagerly i press my taproot
deep and firm into
dark moist
slit

gumbo, sand , rock or churt
duff or dust or just plain dirt
Slam Bam Cram and Jam
Throw the hoedad, stomp and scram

I grit my teeth and throw my hoedad
and place a wimpy pine seedling in
what was recently a hardwood forest.
Covering a little piece of grid and a
bureaucrat's ass for him.
Making sure there'll be cellulose
for adult pampers for aging
baby boomers.

I throw my hoedad, pull
back on the handle and
i'm brought to my senses by
the powerful brown smell
of wild ginger and Here i am
on this Sunlit mountain in the
early Spring.