Mitch

one day, you had me drive
a truck
very slowly
around a paddock

you stood on the back
and kicked biscuits off hay bales
to the ground
to feed what I always assumed were sheep.

I don’t know why
I was the driver
probably not to seed
this memory

more than a decade later,
I sat in a chair talking to
another bearded guy
about my nephew
he spilt the avuncular beans

a man
you know
intimately
maybe entrusted with care
but not a parent

what a role for a man to play!

this is why
you showed me
the inside of a sheep
how it felt and smelt

this is why
you told me
the hay outside
was for wethers

this is why
you helped me
feel both my feet
on the ground

this is why
decades later,
I’m thinking about beer nuts
as I drink this beer

//ends