THE LAWNMOWER MAN

I met a man who saved lawn mowers of every size and shape

He had a big magnificent red one that he rode around his yard

He saved other things too, like old brass boat propellers and railroad crossing signs

He’d keep tools and nuts and bolts of many different kinds

You know he lived through the Great depression when life was awfully hard

And now keeping things about seemed the sensible thing to do

He was easy to talk to because his old blue eyes would focus just on you

I got this from Jack up the street and that from my neighbor Pat

Sometimes he bought more stuff and sometimes he sold

But mainly he would find things and save them just to have and hold

These odd things reminded him about how life used to be and he kept them just because

The older he got the more he hated to part with any of his stuff

The world was changing around him and he couldn’t save enough

His collections were a way of preserving just exactly who he was

He took us to visit the family graveyard and remember people from the past

There was Mildred’s Mother and this is cousin Jim

He even knew exactly where J.P. Dean was laid to rest, the man who built his house

Each and every resident was a special friend or some cherished kin

And he told us about them all from the very first to last

He carried a cane about and would use it often to emphasize a word

Or point something special out

What a wonderful adventure it was to meet the man before me

He had a sister that also collected things but that’s a different story

We would walk and he would talk

This year he was raising four baby rabbits that he had found

And he was saving seeds to plant next year

He even let me see his house and walked me all around

There was this neat old porch where the family used to gather

It was here that stories were told by the young and old

On this very porch and the family was all that mattered

He bought the house back in 47

And he planned to do a lot of things back then

Like replace the siding or install some indoor pipes

But time slipped by and  somehow he never found the time to do the things he planned to do

The house boasts the only working outdoor John in the county

He said some people laugh but it works just fine for me

Some day soon when I go, they’ll bulldoze this old house down

I know it’s true, but I’m not changing nothing, not while I’m around.

I wanted to meet the lawnmower man to visit and see what I had missed

But what I got was even more than I had hoped and wished

MikeB