Daddy's Pickup​

3rd Place in the Poetry Writing Contest

Issue 18

Daddy's pickup, a blue Ford,
with hay bales flying
from Daddy’s hands out the back.
Cows trotting to keep up,
happy with the green alfalfa,
hanging out of their mouths.
 
 But I am the little girl trembling,
scared in the driver’s seat,
peering over the rim of the steering wheel
at the slopes rolling to the bottom of the hill.
My heart bumps along the ruts on top of a short prairie grass hill.
At the bottom a windmill gasps with its vane rattling,
pumping the water into a tank, spilling out to the muddy pond.
Grasping the clutch, vibrating in my tiny hand,
picturing rolling off the hill, sending Daddy flying
and dying, nose deep in muddy pond water.
 
Finally the relief, of daddy jumping back into the cab,
shifting out of neutral to second,
patting my leg with a good job
twinkling in his eyes.
Me never realizing until now how much he loved me.
​

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BARBARA MEIER is a retired teacher who works in a second-grade classroom in Lincoln, KS. Her recent publications include Al Dente, The Fourth River, Plainsongs, The Poetry Lighthouse, and Effy. She has been nominated for the Best of the Net and a Pushcart Award. She has three chapbooks published: “Wildfire LAL 6”, from Ghost City Press, “Getting Through Gold Beach”, from Writing Knights Press, and “Sylvan Grove”, from The Poetry Box. She loves all things ancient.

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