Toiling and Toiling Among the Leaves

A Poem for Boys at Thanksgiving

Toiling and Toiling Among the Leaves

Outside mother’s kitchen window, father and son
Pile leaf after leaf like glorious brethren.
Toiling and toiling, body and face glows and grows
When the warmth of work aches with simplicities.
It looked like a ritual of manliness;
Away from the daily tethering of drilling
And rules keeping boyness from sacred earthl…