Dear Uncle Ralph & Auntie Jane,
I write to thank you for the days
when as a child I came to stay
with you down on the farm

 I was a city kid from a broken home
 I arrived in June, afraid, alone
 I was a  nervous talker, skin and bones
 bereft of any charm but
 you welcomed me with open arms
wasn’t that just yesterday? I can still recall
those barncats sleeping in the straw and
the rooster calling up the dawn
as I lay prairie dreaming

Oh Liz and John, Ralph and Jane 
I love you all for those (D)golden days
on the farm, we were down on the farm in
Deloraine, Oh sweet Deloraine

We’d go bareback ridin nearlyeveryday
on a palomino, gold like grain
mounted from the left the way
that you kindly taught me
oh the joy it brought me
Under thunderclouds of rain
we would cannonball into Chain Lake
with leeches black on our sun kissed skin
we’d just salt ‘em off  & dive back in                       

Cricket singing on those summer nights
we’d bed down in the pale moonlight
with a canopy of stars, so bright
enchanted in pajamas, in my old mickey mouse pajamas
we would wake in the early hours there with
the breakfast bacon in the air
and with the sunlight dancing in our hair

/back