Smart Ass Blue
Published in Poet's Domain, October 1994
Copyright © 1989, 2004
Jason Lester Atkins
985 Fleet Drive, #347
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
All Rights Reserved.
Blue was a stud mule
Larger than most.
When I curried or brushed him down
His coat shimmered blue.
Every weekday he patiently
Plowed and planted or pulled
Our wagon with the winter wood.
When the turn plow snagged
On a hidden root or rock,
Blue squatted and strained
Till all the muscles in his huge thighs
Connected and rolled
Like coiled cables
Into a working pattern
Of nature’s natural art.
On Sundays,
The boy who ploughed on weekdays
Rode with pride
To neighbor’s farms
To visit and show off
To delicious daughters,
While Blue put on his Sunday look,
Stepping higher, stepping faster,
Sporting himself in pride with his rider.
"How much quicker the cotton would be planted,"
Thought the boy,
"If ‘Ole Blue’ moved
On Mondays
With the same quick steps he chose to take
On Sundays."
Some Information About the Above Poem
Ole Blue was our mule in Hapeville, Georgia. The boy was me.
Jason Lester Atkins - October 28, 1994.
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