Horse Power :: Tractor Lust
1973. 7th grade English Lit. Mr. H. makes us memorize and recite poems in front of the entire class. For some of us, this is an exercise in torture. My friend D. turns five increasingly panic-heated shades of red after reciting the (1) poem title, (2) author, and (3) first sentence─nearly passing out before he darts from the room in tears. And I don't escape. At 44, I can still recite every verse of O Captain! My Captain (Walt Whitman). I learned some really useful stuff in junior high school.
In the midst of what is rapidly becoming our epic quest for a tractor (I think my husband Dennis should start his own tractor blog), I’ve found myself wondering if there are any Odes to a Tractor out there. (This is obviously Mr. H.’s fault.) And, OMG, there are─
Ode to a Tractor (instrumental), Cole Porter, Silk Stockings (1955). In one of my favorite old musicals
Ode to a Tractor (poem), Wayne Potash. Mr. Potash waxes poetic about his Allis Chalmers tractor. Allis, Allis Chambers, Allis Chambers was her name ...
Cole Porter
So when my now-tractor-expert husband Dennis and I are sitting on the front porch this summer drinking a beer (so that's what the porch is for?), looking out at our beautifully manicured place and sparkling clean horse corrals, I will be composing my own Ode to a Tractor (possibly with a country western flare), even though I’m not the first.
And maybe in all of my spare time, I will go to the mall and get myself a pair of silk stockings or some other ridiculous frivolous nicety
Now what rhymes with Massey Ferguson?
Manure?
Tractor Photos: Massey Ferguson
Flickr Photo: Lanna Grace
Sources: Ode to a Tractor, Wayne Potash; coleporter.org; dustbury.com
