Would you hold the ladder, measuring tape,
drive the tractor, close the gate?
Am I interrupting computing the taxes?
If you happen to see my glasses…
If I had a thousand pound cow and calf,
how do I calculate the speed of the shaft? 
On your next trip into town, would you pick this up,
drop this off, Bush hog marked down? 
Is our (fill-in-the-blank) all gone?
How do I turn the computer on?
What was I saying? Where was I going?
Which time are we talking about?

Come sit, keep me company 
I’ll read you poetry.

 

~~~

As a girl in rural Texas, Ann-Chadwell Humphries competed in school poetry recitation. Only after retirement did Ann begin to write in community classes. She takes poetry classes at University of South Carolina, and online classes through University of Iowa, University of Pennsylvania, and Hadley Institute for the Blind. Ann’s work has appeared in Emrys, Jasper, Indolent Books, and Fall Lines journals. Ann has won poetry contests, scholarships, and an Emerging Voices Award. Muddy Ford Press and Columbia, South Carolina’s Poet Laureate, Ed Madden, selected Ann for their Laureate series to publish her debut collection, “An Eclipse and a Butcher,” released November, 2020. Ann reads and writes with assistive technology and recites her poems. Learn more about Ann, click www.Ann-ChadwellHumphries.com.