← Poetry

Cemetery Hill

I tried it once. Sideways.. only a fool or a goat would try to scale it vertically. Sidling as far as the John Deere 110 would allow, I finally gave up and ran to find Keith for help. Stopping to look back, I saw the tractor begin to tip… I ran back..caught it… took off for Keith again.. again it tipped and again I ran to right it.

Last week Elmer mowed the hill himself… Up and down…. The crazy way. The hired mowers had deemed the hill to steep to maneuver and Elmer heard the magic words, “It can’t be done.” And there’s no better way to shame a reluctant mower into action than to see an octogenarian do the very thing you deemed impossible.

Lots of folks go up cemetery hill… stiff and boarded up and enjoying their last trip. That’s what a cemetery’s all about. At age 87 ..or 88… God knows I can’t keep straight a man’s age to whom age makes absolutely no difference… At that age Elmer goes up and down the hill…and up again…and down… While others head toward their final rest, Elmer continues in the opposite direction. Impossible? Somebody told him it couldn’t be done.