When I was a young
lad and then some, with a little
Spit and vinegar in
my soul—
When I was a young
lad and then some—
I was well branded
and lived it too!
The long and bitter
winters of Minnesota
I braved, I braved
them all, under deep and heavy snows
I walked to St. Louis
Ecole School,
Down on 10th
and Cedar streets:
A mile or two.
I roamed the back
streets, and the main streets,
Of the Capital City
of St. Paul…
And once winter come,
there was no escape!
For a Minnesota
winter has no mercy for man, bird or beast.
I caught the winds
and snows, and loved it all!
All the woe that had
no mercy to all living things…
In my youth, I hammered
through the snows, year by year;
A racial, a roustabout,
I was back then, and then some,
Half man, half boy, I
rushed with youth, time and joy,
Against the winds, the
atrocious winter winds!
Watching everything, everybody
back then!
In the horrid
winters, my feet and legs breached a path through
The slush and sleet,
listening to the scrapings of shovels,
On sidewalks and
streets!
More often than not,
frosty tears would fall from my eyelids
Past my nose, to my
cheeks, down to my lips and chin—
Then freeze in the
wind: yet, I kept my cheers, by and by.
Alone more often than
not, with God and me to talk:
I made my way,
footprints and all, frozen in the snow.
That was when I was a
full boy, and perhaps a little more man—
Winter served me
well, young and sturdy I was like a brave colt,
Bright as a peacock,
stubborn as a mule; hence, I’d tugged my way,
Whichever way, like a
bull in milky grass.
Back then, I roamed
the wooded empty, a man, and then some.
Thereafter, I roamed
the world, nothing weighed me down:
Life was like heavy
ice, and packed snow, like those tall clouted down
Weeds in the empty, yet
I pushed on through…!
I was no longer like
the perched crow, on the nearby tall trailed trees—
Waiting for spring,
and then summer, —on gauntly bending branches,
Legs like stilts— wings
frozen to the bone!
I set off to travel
the world, on my own, alone! And then some!
NO: 4284 ((4-6-2014) (revised, 3-2016))
