by Carol Jarvis

Hideouts in the woods, lilacs in the spring,
Wearing a cigar band, pretending it’s a ring.

Dogwood blossoms and cut-off britches,
Skinned up knees and willow tree switches

Cats-eye marbles and spinning tops
Chewing fresh rhubarb, skipping river rocks

The feel of fresh plowed dirt between my toes
Telephone lines with ravens in a row

The taste of apple cider, cooled in the creek
Playing “Kick-the-Can”, being “it” for “Hide-and-Seek”

Toting my treasures in a burlap sack
Planting by the moon and the Almanac

Dusty country roads with hardly any traffic
The caw of a crow considered a racket

Weathered old out-houses, wispy spiders webs
Day dreams on the porch swing, critters to be fed

Goo Goo bars and a lantern for a light
Bathing in a wash tub on Saturday night

Red Rooster snuff, Prince Albert in a can
Lonesome train whistles and the ice cream man

Church box suppers, braided rugs on the floor

Apple butter boiling, penny candy from the store

Drinking Hires Root Beer and “Dickson Shine”
The cotton mill whistle means it quitin’ time

Bamboo fishing poles, sinkers made of lead
A ‘52 Ford truck with a solid oak bed

Dresses made from feed sacks, dandelion wine
Ripley tomatoes, heavy on the vine

Archie comic books and grassless yards
Homemade brooms and baseball trading cards

Watermelon pickles and sassafras tea
Lightning bugs winking by the chinaberry tree

“Lydia Pinkham’s” and cod liver oil
“Buffalo Tonic” and peanuts to boil

Corn cob pipes, out behind the barn
“Cat’s in the Cradle” with a ball of yarn

Scolding bluejays and lonesome whip-o-wills
African violets on the windowsill

Evening birds are calling, their melancholy sound
Blends with the music of a redbone hound

Listening to the “Opry” every Saturday night
Saying our prayers by the moon’s full light

Another place, another time

Precious memories put me in

A Country Frame of Mind

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c 1995 – C. Jarvis-Kirkendall

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