Monday, February 21, 2022

In Praise of Plodding

I don't sing the praises
of plodding. I mumble them.

Praise for slow striders
and taciturn toilers.

For persons who lay gray
mortar for red bricks.

Who plow fields for
food-to-be, who teach

students who arrive 
foggy from hunger or

adolescent hormones.
Who nurse the ill, who

must listen and endure in
their jobs to the squawk, squeak,

shriek of opinions. I
celebrate ones who watch

where they're going, who
produce the correct tool

at the proper time. Who follow
facts like meandering creeks

until a decisive lake comes
into view. Humanity seems

always in need of the prepared
and careful,  the appropriately shod,

citizens scrubbed of narcissism.
Thank you, plodders. Steady on.


hans ostrom 2022

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