Sunday 14 August 2011

85

That night I remember I was up
Late at the kitchen table drinking a
Glass of milk when he came in all
Messed up. He was stumbling around
And shaking something terrible as
He took off his work clothes in
The dark by the door and when
He came to the table he was red
In the face drinking a glass of water
And closing his eyes. He didn't talk at
All and I only heard days later
How Job had become caught in
The thresher and how they had not
Been able to shut it off and how
It had ground on for a quarter of a
Mile with them all heaving at Job
And at the machine and screaming
At each other and how when John
Finally ripped the tubes out of the
Ignition Job was mutilated so bad
His arm was gone to the shoulder
And he was sick grey, and how they
Had carried the body five miles to
His mother's house and laid him
Out in a stretcher of old plastic.

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