Kindness of One Set in His Ways

Kindness of One Set in His Ways

His life back then lay in the classless,
Wide open spaces of countryside,
Monitoring his Hawk's Nest line.

I’d had the parent teacher conference
And the heart to heart talk with him
But it all had come to the same end.

Which is not to say that he was wrong.
This boy already doing a man’s work,
Walked his lines to set his traps with bait.

He’s the one that guffawed aloud
When I said we’d conjugate the verb “to be.”
“I am, you are, out of your everloven mind.”

I sent the lankey blue jean wearing teen out
To report to the principal’s office, and
Then heard over the intercom a call myself.

I headed out the door to the hospital
Trying to hoof it there on foot
So as to be there when the baby came.

Though already in the street AWOL,
He offered me a ride to the hospital.
I took it sheepishly and said "Thanks."

The pickup passenger seat was catch-all,
With oil rags on the floor, cassette music -
Of Johnny Cash (“I Walk the Line” of course).

He’d heard I was on the way to the hospital;
So he set off right away having thrown
His Sears catalog down between my legs.

His passenger door handle was missing
And the upholstery had a vague scent
Of skunk and tobac juice cologne.

It’s a hoot now to think he’d escorted
His teacher of conjugation on his way
To "Teache's" daughter’s birthing.

Though each his own line of work,
We only intersected  the other at the bait
Of  what in life is necessary and true.

But the smirk on his face told me
He really did get it, this man thing,
This comfort of being in one's own boots.

© 2012 by Richard J. Hilber.
All rights reserved.