Always a Gamble

We have had a lot of rain this fall. It can be annoying, especially when the water finds a way inside. But as potentially damaging as leaks can be, the farmers have it worse. Acre upon acre of corn and soybeans remain unharvested because of frequent showers or water standing in the fields.



Alway a Gamble


Too many cornstalks hesitate
to swap summer's field-green foliage
for windbreakers of beige.

Behind this, lingering warmth
and a cosmic spigot stuck on open.

Decades ago, my own uncles, forced
indoors by wet weather, watched
a World Series feeling torn:

glued to the games but cursing the rain.

Even the flintiest of farmers pray
for stretches of goldenrod days
before wins become losses
and yields start to sink in muddy fields.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor