Not fit enough to wander the wild woods
or separate my wouldn’ts from my shoulds,
what can I say?
Not spry enough to scamper on a deck
or fend a tall sloop from a leeward wreck,
I steer my way.
No longer lean or lithe enough to climb
a groaning glacier out in Mountain Time,
here I shall stay.
So: on the closely-cropped alfalfa fields
that my Creator in his bounty yields
I stack my hay.
—Timothy Murphy
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