A Winter Content Remembered

by Douglas Polk

Saturday morning the adventure begins,
awake and dressed before the morning sun,
in the predawn light,
guns checked one last time,
anticipation dancing in every eye,
out to the windbreak on Grange corner,
the stalk begins,
the weeds and brush crunch and crackle underfoot,
only the wealthy can afford the dogs,
brothers and sisters too young to hunt,
sniff through the trees in place of the dogs,
while the guns walk with brothers both north and south,
alert for pheasants attempting to escape,
gun blasts fill the early morn,
the young become retrievers,
running birds down and breaking their necks,
then on to the next windbreak north of town,
happiness reigns,
we will not go hungry this winter,
the freezer at home,
stuffed with game,
enough to feed a family of twelve,
country and Catholic,
in this land of grain.