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The old girl in the paddock
Contributed by
Redwest802
on
Saturday, 14th April 2018 @ 07:46:45 AM in AEST
Topic:
oops
|
I went for a walk, early one morn,
moist dew on the ground, white frost on the lawn.
I ventured up a trail, hadn/'/t seen it before,
t/'/was calling to me, this trail, to explore.
I followed this track, not knowing where it lead,
then to my surprise, I saw a meadow ahead.
I saw on the far side, under a gnarled old fig
a Massey Ferguson tractor, I decided to check this rig.
I had walked for a while and so wanted to rest.
So I crossed the damp meadow as she loomed ahead.
When I got over there she looked so sad and forlorn.
I suddenly felt weary and then I stifled a yawn.
It felt a bit strange, as if I was being watched.
I searched the bush around me, there was nothing there but scrub.
I drifted off into drowsy sleep and then awoke to my surprise .
For a spell had been cast over me, and this tractor spoke to my mind.
In her angelic and lifting voice, she whispered softly to me,
I want to say thanks dear Sir, for are visiting this place, you see.
She continues to talk, telling off her life,
and how she was strong and was her owners delight.
She remembered her first time, dragging harrows through the dirt
as the old draught horses stood ,their eyes sad and hurt
How proud she did feel, on that first day
How her engine did roar as she leapt away,
the old Farmer, she remembered and how special she felt
As she harvested wheat on that fine Golden Belt,
So very young and strong, her paint job was brand new,.
Her tyres, they were shiny black, from bright headlights, light did spew.
Year by Year, she worked with her boss. Her engine never once stalled.
She remember him showing off to his mates, they all stood there enthralled
then one day as she was working, looking old but still going strong.
She saw a truck pull up near the ramp, her successor had come along
the truck you see carried a shiny, new Tractor, she knew her time was to end
She knew then she was being replaced, she hated this replacement trend
Her successor had come along you see,
It broke her heart that day,
when the old farmer pulled her up near the truck
and said to her, My dear, tis your final day
at first she never understood, for she was faithful and true,
but soon it began to dawn on her, her replacement was shiny and blue.
T/'/was about that time she said, Those old horses she had seen,
the look of pain and remorse in their eyes and now she felt akin.
For she had replace those old horse, and taken his job away.
She was too young to see it then,
To see it was their final day
But now that her last day had come, she felt their pain, the same.
My emotions they ran wildly as tears streamed from my eyes,
she continued on with her tale, about her passing demise.
She said the farmer looked happy, twas proud of his new blue boy.
She there was a sting, a pain in heart, as her life was stripped of its joy.
That evening the old farmer, he came to her once again,
he said that she could rest now, no more the harsh pulling strain.
She said tried to tell him, tried to make his see,
tried to tell him how she felt, as he drove her through the trees.
He parked then on this spot, out in this wooded field.
Discarding her to decay and rot, red rust forming on her steel.
She told me she can/'/t remember, how long ago that was,
she had given up all hope for life, until I had come across.
I promised her, then and there, her life would be renewed.
I would take her home with me and I pondered on that move.
That itself, was many years past, now she sits and waits,
for the next vintage tractor day, when she can visit her old mates.
She tells them of her life and triumphs, keeps the mesmerised.
And never fails to tell them, I was her saviour from Demise.
Copyright Terence West 2018
Copyright ©
Redwest802
... [
2018-04-14 07:46:45]
(Date/Time posted on
site)
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by Durango on
Saturday, 14th April 2018 @ 04:08:36 PM AEST
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Outside of a few misspellings, you took it through the eras of the tractor with the focus on the subject.
Trimming off some of the lines would make it more concisely flowing, shorter but with the same feeling.
"The truck carried a shiny...."
"My emotions ran wild as..."
Something like that.
I enjoyed the subject, unusual.
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by JamesStockdale on
Saturday, 14th April 2018 @ 06:23:16 PM AEST
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Agree with Durango. I liked it too.
Actually I just got off of my old Massey Ferguson tractor to get it ready for this season. Nice.
The shorter the better on YPDC- very few will read anything more than 5-6 stanzas- sad but true! |
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Sunday, 15th April 2018 @ 04:54:24 AM AEST
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O I gravitated to this,
the car, the box you first bought
cheap second hand, to go where,
surely it never plowed no land,
even though I did drive it through
the winter wood, drunk like a fool
when I was eighteen, but
no matter, its frame would outlast
my own, it just would, unless of
course it was fitfully and steaddfastly
broken down, usable parts,
sold second hand, it/'/s main engine
and shell smashed down and melted
into a new steal to be made into
something else.
The steel, the empathy with
the tools, the thing, inanimate
that might mean so much
that lives on past any life
But the tractor grinds on in the
storied fields, past the rust
past the slow decay of seasons
that pass on as they do,
and must we so soon
not remember to see
what it means
when we call anything
new.
This is really insightful
there is an objectivity
in antiquity or even
in an object that
really isn/'/t quite so old
A point in reference
to symbolize a point in
time when some
change held real
meaning to more than
just a few
Peace! |
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by emystar on
Sunday, 15th April 2018 @ 04:55:30 AM AEST
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| A master piec e |
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Sunday, 15th April 2018 @ 10:05:52 AM AEST
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emystar is right,
the title, the old girl in the paddock,
where you keep your horses, in the short field,
if you got horses, and a short field.
keep your land, your taxes, they might
say the more land the more taxes, you have
to prove yourself, you need a tractor.
A great one, they say |
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Re: The old girl in the paddock
(User Rating: 1 )
by Former_Member on
Sunday, 15th April 2018 @ 10:05:56 AM AEST
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Info | Send
a Message)
|
emystar is right,
the title, the old girl in the paddock,
where you keep your horses, in the short field,
if you got horses, and a short field.
keep your land, your taxes, they might
say the more land the more taxes, you have
to prove yourself, you need a tractor.
A great one, they say |
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