Saskatchewan by Gregg Norman

SASKATCHEWAN

1

Home to a hobby farm

From a small-town 9 to 5

Gravel crunching under wheels

Long dust boiling out behind

A chestnut gelding

Stretches his neck

Over a wire fence

Bobs his noble head

I nod back because

I know so many of his kind

The grass is newly green

But won’t last

Without the rain

That never comes

2

A pair of towheads

In a plywood boat

Jigging up a pail of perch

From a greenwater lake

Taking turns lugging it

Back to the cottage

Where neighbors gather

To the hunter’s horn

For rum and coke

Rye and ginger

Fresh bread and butter

And fillets fried in lard

We are acknowledged

As founders of the feast

3

A college campus quad

Circled by greystone edifice

Rez is a home-away-from-home

For farm boys

And young men in turbans

Girls across the yellowing lawn

Rez Don is a tweedy Brit

As is my English Lit prof

Learning how to learn

Exercising a level

Of self-discipline

Not required back home

A long spell until my bus

 Goes south for Christmas

4

Hose from a basement casement

Window to flood rough ice

On a vacant lot

We only learned to walk

To learn to skate

Clumsy kids clashing

On hand-me-down blades

Pushing sticks cobbled

With wood screws and glue

And black tape

From Dad’s toolbox

Choosing up sides

For life-and-death games

In rarefied sub-zero air