The Fair

By Rachel HT Mendell 

Clamping boots

Shuffling sleepy feet

Blow dryers

Crowing loud soft insistent pleading

Honking geese

Mahahah of goats

Lowing of cows

Blood pressure dropping

Time slowing

Calmness trickling over me

Walking goats

Flipping bunnies

Tapping hogs

Guiding bulls

Inverting broilers

Pigs bark

Roosters growl

Cows whine

Pigs scream

People cough and sneeze gather water clean pens brush stock move feed sprinkle water wash hands fill bowls and jugs

Grandparents share time and buy food for their inheritance

Parents fix and mend and pin and adjust and frustrate and cajole and substitute and get too involved and stand back and leave alone and watch and let fly and are filled with pride and cry and hug

Kids shake hands and act grown up and run in the grass and gravel and scream and jump and slap and joke and eat too much and learn the hard way

Relatives take photos and Facebook and join crowds of onlookers and applaud and comment and ask questions and wonder why silently and out loud

Eating dust

Walking hot

Waiting for eternity in the shade

Texting. How did we ever do the fair without texting?

Craving beef at the Cattlemen’s grill

Pulled pork sandwich a close second

Icy lemonade with a real lemon at the bottom

Cotton candy sticking to my fingers until bed time

Drink more water, says Dad.

I grab a Coke

Waiting for friends to show up

Running out of money

Regretting the sacrificial purchase of drinks for others

We know the guy on stage but that doesn’t make him sing any better

Why does it have to be so hot?

Why won’t my friends talk to me?

Why does my little brother have to kick gravel in my face?

Another lemonade

Maybe Mom will lend me more money

Maybe Dad will bring me back tomorrow

I count my money just enough for an elephant ear

Last day auction cheers tears satisfaction disappointment

Photos with the buyers and Mom and Dad and Gramps and Queen of all animals

More food

Buzzards create patterns in the sky waiting patiently or showing off or watching the garden tractor pulls or just having fun because they can

(this is my first attempt at writing poetry on my iPhone)