Hindsight

Joni Mitchell on the stereo,
Conveyed happiness led to harm…
Subscribing, I spent a decade
Alone on the Marfargoa farm.

I perched the house on a fish pond,
The bull frogs sang their nightly song,
As I played the grand piano,
Night herons guarded the night along.

Geese gathered by the back door,
Wild pheasants roosted in elm trees,
The horse’s backs to the kitchen window,
Turned against the delta breeze.

Chickens settled on barn rafters ,
Sheep slept in the lean-to at night…
I was the loneliest man in the world, I thought,
Hidden apparently from everyone’s sight.

Forty years later, I’ve traveled the world,
Those years on the farm, history…
I look back on the life that surrounded me,
Now those years mean the most to me.