There is plowing there, sowing there, there are all sorts of increase there. .Runo 28, Kalevala[1]
AMISH ANGELUS
© Jane Piirto All Rights Reserved
beneath a melon pink and streaked orange vat
while driving home at dusk along the fields
a man in blue, suspenders, beige straw hat
thrown back above his shaggy beard, his shields
his knotted forearms, craggy hands that hold
the reins of two tan Belgians, creamy maned
their toss and plod, their pulling; bending; bold.
he walks behind them leaning back, his veined
and muscled legs resist black clumps of sod
in farm Ohio where they live for God
although this sight near here is commonplace
his shadowed sunset face reminds of grace
each morning past my house on Walnut Street
their buggies’ horses’ bells ting, faux Millet.
[1] Quotations from The Kalevala from Keith Bosley’s translation, 1989, Oxford University Press.
Publication information:
Piirto, J. (2008). Amish Angelus. Greenhouse: Anthology of Rustbelt Roethke Writers’ Workshop. Woodstock, NY: Mayapple Press, p. 43.