Old Man of the Land ( Dedicated To Sid Grey Born 19 ? Died 1996 R.I.P )
When Sid first met me he laughed
Sat in his seat of an old Ford 135
Tractor red rust and wet sticking mud
Swathed in a great green rain coat
A friendly laugh he said
“Bet you wish you hadn’t come here now”
My first day working on his farm
I stood in the rain waiting
I must have looked a pitiful sight
He eyed me, but not unkindly
Removed a minuscule hand rolled cigarette
From the corner of his mouth
Peered at it
Then to my surprise stuck it back between his lips and lit it
Sid’s face had been carved from an old tree root
Looked as if he'd been born that way
Brown gnarled lined with years
Below grey brows his eyes smiled
Bright and clear
A dismal wet and mud plied day
Sid taught me how to coax his tractor
Through ruts and puddles of sticking clay
Next day we progressed to bigger wheeled monsters
Finally just five days after
I stepped up to the great green yellow John Deere
“There you go she’s all yours, patted the wheel
“Check the oil every day, the water, you know where to get your diesel
I thanked him
“Don’t thank me lad just make sure I get it back in one piece”
We worked together in the season passing
For six years at each seasons beginning
Found me there waiting
Wasn’t much for talking old Sid
Wasn’t much for working either
Between innumerable smoke breaks
Tea breaks, sandwich breaks, break breaks
And other breaks
The job was done on time
“There’s always time he’d say, if we don’t finish tomorrow
We’ll finish another day
A Sid break
Sid must've fancied a chat
Munching sandwiches
He patted the soil next to him
Like some beloved old sheep dog
“I love the land he said, worked on it all my life
This must’ve been true
He knew every solution to any predicament
Any job in motion could throw at you
“These days, he continued
People want to squeeze as much out of her as they possibly can,
Shook his head, no respect for the land;
You gotta look after her, don’t and the ground just dies;
Aint no use chucking all them chemicals on it,
You can’t feed it like that,
chewed on the butt of his cigarette
They’re gonna drain her dry someday.”
I nodded, no comment was needed or wanted
But to my surprise from the corner of his eye
The wet trickle of a tear
That was Sid Grey, old man of the land
Earth in his blood
Soil in his hand
A whole University of knowledge went lost unnoticed
The day he passed away
He patted the soil next to him
“I love the land, worked on it all my life
and with a chuckle he smiled
An’ I’ll be buried in it someday”
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