A Farmer Mom Advises Mary-Lynnlisten

In Memory of J.R.

"Your youngster likes to draw, and read, and play
with words and rhymes," the teacher told me when
we met a quarter hour on conference day.

As though I didn't know at all my ten
year old! She said she'd like "to bring him out,
so he'd grow up a man among real men."

I wondered had she drunk straight from the spout
too much corn liquor? But I held my tongue.
No use to bicker. And, I had no doubt

she wanted common sense—just mouthing dung
from shoveling out an educator's bin.
What's more, she was, as they all are, so young!

I stood—her eyes went wide—said, "Mary Lynn,
don't try to bring my youngster 'out' unless
for sure you know how you'll put him back 'in.'"

by Leland Jamieson

Photo by Keba Evans Copyright 2006


Leland Jamieson, a performing arts center manager for most of his working life, is retired and lives in East Hampton, Connecticut, USA. His recent and forthcoming work appears in Bellowing Ark, Barefoot Muse, ShatterColors, Raintown Review, and 3rd Muse. He has gathered over 50 published formal poems (all with optional streaming audio) under the title Needles in a Pinewood on a newly redesigned site. He is hawking a full-length book manuscript by the same name.

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