Things That Take Time
by Benjamin F. Hull (1941-)
These hill’s woods
Drain to Bird Brook
And in time its waters find the sea
But early deal with rapids
In which I found a lily.
Over time one rock got enough
Silt, dirt, whatever
To grow one tigery lily
And cardinal flowers framed it
And let it take the high ground.
Just witnessed
——————–
Some things need the time
The tiger lily took.
Like favors from the neighbors.
Offer cash and you may be told
Where to put your hat.
You’d better do better than that
And give something that your self is in.
——————–
So I make maple syrup.
Out in the cold trees I tap
I wound actually
But like a mother or grandmother
You may have had
They recover.
2005 required snow shoes.
Try making a U-turn on those damned things
Carrying a bucket of sap.
Then its forty to one boiling down.
But when you’re done and it’s done right
Taste buds alight
Where you didn’t know you had any.
Victory like the lily in the brook.
And the mail carrier
And the old timer you’ve asked too much of
And the neighbors will accept it.
They’ll know how much time it took.
Perhams Mineral Store
Decided once to make sapphires.
They got the ore
And put it on the tumbler
Where it took a year or more
And a guy there said
They’d never do it again.
But they didn’t take it out
On you or yours.
Sapphire earrings. Seven dollars a pair.
But unlike syrup they’ll last for years.
Maybe even generations.
——————–
Some things don’t work out like we’d like.
The old man on the sea
Caught a marlin
Twice or more as big as he.
But on the way to shore
The sharks smelled blood
Maybe from his lure where the fish bit?
The harpoon?
Achilles heel. The sea ran red
And the sharks hit and he got home
With only bones. And the fishes head.
But he could say with Perham’s Store
Bird Brook’s lily, the maple tress and me
That at the end, when the hearse starts its engine,
“Been there, done that.”
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