“The level sunrise brings a simple glory
To hoarfrost in November. Brilliance soft
Lives in the buffalo grass of prairie spaces,
Lives in the gray of weathering tassel-top
On the dun rows of corn as in the field
The husker starts and stops his patient team.
Above the jangle of neckyoke, clatter of stalk
On rattling wagon, thud of the flung ear,
His voice is masterful.
With awkward vigor,
Over the rough and frozen ground he stumps,
Tearing the corn from heavy husks that rasp
Through glove and finger-cot to fray the flesh.
A rhythm rules the hands, the jerking arm,
No muscle wincing as the silk-fringed ears
Fly true, thump lightly on the towering board
Hour after hour. At noon the well-heaped wagon
Creeps groaning to the stackyard. Steadily
The farmer bends and rises heaving weight
Of yellow corn to roll from the shoulder-slope
Of an uncribbed mountain. The fields have blessed the tiller,
And corn is king.
To market one day’s drive,
The price ten cents a bushel. ‘Tis sturdily up
And down the five bad hills; and wearily home
At dusk from the long, long miles; three trips a week
Is all a team can stand.
Corn moulds and rots;
The kitchen fire is fed with yellow ears
Till the house reeks, and all the doors fly wide
To free the odor. Yet to market, King,
To pay the notes and the three per cent, a month.
(Edwin Ford Piper)”
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