Songs of My Father

the passing seasons
Grandmother was a big woman
'Did ya see any caribou
tracks, Josie?' she'd say
When he come back from the barn

The morning heaving heavy with frost

The snow was maybe three feet thick
And she fixed our throats with molasses
Mixed with a bit of white
Scraped off chicken dung
One of her boys went to Chicago
He got rich there on cattle

Yah, Lavinia was a big woman, alright

Will never did get back

She spoilt me some rotten
Left letters for the witches
At the foot of my bed
(I don't know why)

Grandfather had a heart attack
As he sat countin' the day's wages
Out of his leather blacksmith's pouch

She took him back to Begger Settlement
Buried him with her people
Up against the cemetery fence
(There'd been a fight about
Ploughed-over graves
Seeded down with grain
In Pleasant River)

No, Will never did get back
And it took eight men
To haul her down the hill
Thro' wheel ruts and muck
That spring she passed on.

*******************
travelling the Barrens Road

That turn in the road back there
Once that was Badger's Corner

Though I never knew why it was

Some desperate narrow
Then... We watched out for it
In the winter with the sledges

In case you went off

There was ledges on one side
Badger's Corner was some mean
I never knew why they called it that

*****************
living the life

They was desperate poor
Living back there off the road

And eatin' just mostly
Rabbits and such

Mother kept all 14 of us fed
Fresh bread every day
And big skillets full of hash
A hundred pound bag
Of flour each week

They sure was desperate poor...