the family farm

like a horse
broken by work
like a tire
worn without tread
my father said to me
        let us go
        home


that year
land lay fallow
and we saw
machinery sold
my father said to me
        let us go
        home
he said to me
        i think i’m gonna be sick
        i think that i am


will i love like my father loved
his farm and his honest labor
when he said
        i think i’m gonna be sick
        i think that i am


please a prayer
to become a horse
broken by work
to become as a tire
worn without tread
to become a father
to become and to say
        let us go home

Christopher C. Schrock

Christopher C. Schrock

Christopher C. Schrock is a pastor and lives in Billings, Montana, with his wife Julie Lynn and their four children.