October 2017
Joan Colby
JoanMC@aol.com
JoanMC@aol.com
I have written poetry and short fiction all my life and published a lot of it. My day job is editor of a trade publication Illinois Racing News. I live on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with my husband and various animals. My latest book, "Ribcage," (from Glass Lyre Press) recently won the 2015 Kithara Book Prize. I also am an associate editor of FutureCycle Press and Kentucky Review.
Author's Note: These are poems from a group that I am calling "The Ordinary Saints". So far, I have about 24 of these and aiming toward a chapbook eventually.
SAINT GEEK
Blessings on you, hacker and coder.
When the blue screen of perdition
Freezes our social media, eats
Documents and emails, you
Can name the bugs and resolutions,
Byways we can’t imagine. Saint
Of concentration typing the passwords
To the heart of the unbidden. Freeing us to
Proceed. Or like the cop at the door
Bearing bad news, you tell us there’s
No fix, hope we have backup
Here or in the cloud.
SAINT FARM-WORKER
Blessings on you attaching the vacuum tubes
To the teats so the milk will flow
Into the hoses. Shoveling the manure
Into the pits, the hog ponds that stink
A hundred acres. You’re immune
To all but the work that rarely changes.
Unless a cow is down with bloat
Or a calf is stuck in the birth canal.
You get the chains and the pullers.
We who drink lattes, swallow yogurt
Don’t dream of the chilly barns
Where in a carhartt jacket and feed cap, you
Clear the aisles with a bobcat.
SAINT LANDSCAPER
Blessings on you, battered truck and trailer.
Implements of your trade,
Mower, trimmer, rake and shovel.
A roar of progress as grass is shorn,
Flower beds edged, weeds whacked, branches shredded.
Saint Juan, Saint Isidro, Saint Jose
In ball caps and jackets, hunched
On the zero-turn machines or mulching
Hostas, extracting the Creeping Charlie.
Caravans on suburban streets
To tidy the prospects of
Up-and-coming gringos.
SAINT ELECTRICIAN
Blessings on you, wiring and spark.
Fuse box to circuit breaker
Lighting the world. The grid
Of power. How connections matter
Knob and tube to conduit.
Saint of AC-DC. Currents that
Transform the dark hours.
Transformers where the juice is stored.
Installer of plugs and outlets.
The invisible nation
Hard-wired.
SAINT MANICURIST
Blessings on you, orange sticks suppressing
The ragged cuticle, the saucer in which
Fingertips soak. Shaped to a perfect oval,
The bright varnish applied. Decals
Of flowers or jewels waving
Sinuous as exotic dancers.
What we point at will trigger
Admiration of your skills.
Vietnamese woman commanding:
Hold still. This paint must dry.
How you nail us
With a styled creation
To indemnify against an
Onus of manual labor.
SAINT GEEK
Blessings on you, hacker and coder.
When the blue screen of perdition
Freezes our social media, eats
Documents and emails, you
Can name the bugs and resolutions,
Byways we can’t imagine. Saint
Of concentration typing the passwords
To the heart of the unbidden. Freeing us to
Proceed. Or like the cop at the door
Bearing bad news, you tell us there’s
No fix, hope we have backup
Here or in the cloud.
SAINT FARM-WORKER
Blessings on you attaching the vacuum tubes
To the teats so the milk will flow
Into the hoses. Shoveling the manure
Into the pits, the hog ponds that stink
A hundred acres. You’re immune
To all but the work that rarely changes.
Unless a cow is down with bloat
Or a calf is stuck in the birth canal.
You get the chains and the pullers.
We who drink lattes, swallow yogurt
Don’t dream of the chilly barns
Where in a carhartt jacket and feed cap, you
Clear the aisles with a bobcat.
SAINT LANDSCAPER
Blessings on you, battered truck and trailer.
Implements of your trade,
Mower, trimmer, rake and shovel.
A roar of progress as grass is shorn,
Flower beds edged, weeds whacked, branches shredded.
Saint Juan, Saint Isidro, Saint Jose
In ball caps and jackets, hunched
On the zero-turn machines or mulching
Hostas, extracting the Creeping Charlie.
Caravans on suburban streets
To tidy the prospects of
Up-and-coming gringos.
SAINT ELECTRICIAN
Blessings on you, wiring and spark.
Fuse box to circuit breaker
Lighting the world. The grid
Of power. How connections matter
Knob and tube to conduit.
Saint of AC-DC. Currents that
Transform the dark hours.
Transformers where the juice is stored.
Installer of plugs and outlets.
The invisible nation
Hard-wired.
SAINT MANICURIST
Blessings on you, orange sticks suppressing
The ragged cuticle, the saucer in which
Fingertips soak. Shaped to a perfect oval,
The bright varnish applied. Decals
Of flowers or jewels waving
Sinuous as exotic dancers.
What we point at will trigger
Admiration of your skills.
Vietnamese woman commanding:
Hold still. This paint must dry.
How you nail us
With a styled creation
To indemnify against an
Onus of manual labor.
© 2017 Joan Colby
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF