Tonya Land – Jackson County, Florida
We recently had to crush some grain and hay to feed the cows. The dust provided an unpleasant re occurrence of a nasty affliction I have dealt with in the past. Don’t know if anyone else has had such symptoms but exposure to oats just kicks my backside!
We attended the annual Graceville Cotton dinner last night and the feeling of community was strong as we remembered the death of a great man whom passed shortly before the hurricane hit. His name was Harvey Ray Harrell and he was a source of laughter and strength in our farming family.
I think he would have gotten a chuckle out of this poem, if not endless jokes and stories that would follow.
We will miss you, Harvey Ray!
Grain Fever
There are things on a farm that I don’t enjoy.
Like fresh piles of cow poop
after a few inches of rain
Splashed on to your jeans that makes a big stain
Or axle grease rubs when you suck in your gut
Repairing a bearing and replacing a nut
That ruins new T-shirts and gets under your nails
One you scrub
The other soaked in a pail
But what I hate most
is the dust from the oat
That flies in the air and gets caught in your throat
Or clogs up your goozle
and provides a dry cough
Fills up your nose with black boogers and snot
Creeps down those cracks…
Settles in your bra
Wiggles inside your waistband
lower back and beyond
It sneaks into your pockets and boots and then sock
One small grain feels like a rock
Into the ears and fine lines of good grace
Crusted into your hair and plastered to your face
The itch is the worst after sweat makes a paste
And a shower is desired with all due haste
But worst of all yet is the dawn the next morn
When you realize you’re broke out with welts, and fever that is born
From exposure to the oh humble oat
That nasty dust that gets caught in your throat
