September dry grasses let go their hold
on tin sheets, rusted barbed wire pieces, broken
iron implements.
We load the pickup with a season’s waste,
head to town for a movie after dumping
half a ton at the metal yard.
There’s our first show: a twenty foot high
Terex Fuchs Electric Magnet
and a MHL Claw (on a really tall) Crane
return us to childhood’s dirt and toy trucks
that could do anything, move mountains, fly
through the air when necessary.
We listen to the sounds of metal grinding,
smell the turbo diesel engine burning,
look up at a young man with plenty of levers,
dipping, twisting, grabbing, flinging--
as if he’d paid attention in physics class--
utilizing the pendulum swing of the weighty mass.
The particulate filters in the sealed cab
with protective ventilation are wasted this day.
Doors are open so he hears all the rumble and crash
with us, feels the light breeze. He smiles
through dirty sweat as we walk away, slightly richer
with cash for a matinee and snacks.