Monday, October 11, 2010

Chevys

A large vintage Chevy group will be visiting Afton Station late in the day tomorrow, so it's doubtful that I'll be blogging until Wednesday. Meanwhile, here's a little poem I wrote yesterday while watching the building demolition. It needs a lot of work, but then so does Afton.

Sunday Morning Backhoe Dirge

It's much too glorious a morning
For a dirge.
A hymn to timeless beauty
Seems more appropriate.
And yet it is a dirge I hear,
The horrid rumble of rocks
Falling and scraping against pavement
Pushed by John Deere's yellow monster
Creating a cacaphony
Above which melodious strains
Are neither heard nor felt.

Timeless beauty
Has it's time, I guess,
When carefully piled stone
Once lovingly stacked by caring masons
A hundred years ago
Is pummeled and disgraced and devoured
By the great yellow machine.

On an otherwise silent Sunday morning
In the most silent town on earth
(Save for whistles of occasional trains)
Sunday silence is violated
By a building's death.

3 comments:

Life's a Beach! said...

Laurel, I love your blog! I was just in Vinita in July and stopped at the antique stores in the downtown area. I was on my way from the Tulsa airport to Oswego, Kansas to spend the weekend. Next time, my friend and I will stop by Afton! I love Route 66 and all the historic stops along it. Nice poem!

Laurel said...

Thanks so much! I plan to look further at your blog later today. It looks extremely interesting!

Laurel

Ron McCoy said...

I just looked at your blog, Life's a Beach. It's fun! I noticed you had visited Buffalo Ranch in Afton recently and you wondered if the buffalo burgers in the "good old days" were actually buffalo meat. Yes, they were. Betty, who ran The Dairy Ranch there, visits Afton Station frequently and confirms they WERE buffalo! :-)