She hops down from the dump truck’s crusty side

and climbs up into the earth mover as graceful

as a gymnast, pony tail bouncing

behind her John Deere baseball cap.

She wields the blade

of the machine and in minutes

levels a great mound of soil

into flat-out respect.

The admiration in which I held my ex-wife

comes to mind. How

when the pipes leaked

she slid under the sink

wrench in hand, saving the day

while I just held her flashlight.

But this is about a woman

who moves the earth

with just her fingers

on the leash of a great yellow beast,

and though she’ll never know,

holds me in the palm of her hand.

 

Bill Wunder

Bill Wunder’s poems have twice been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and in 2004 he was named Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His poems have been a finalist in The Robert Fraser Poetry Competition, The Mad Poet’s Society Competition twice, and The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards three times. He has previously been featured in Burningword Literary Journal and was included in Burningword Ninety-Nine, A Selected Anthology of Poetry 2001-2011.

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