Broker

by Gordon Lang

 

Let’s say I fill your water bucket—

what might you do for me?

 

Would you till and seed my garden

with butter beans and ever-bearing chard?

 

Would you scrape and paint the house,

assuming I let you use my ladder?

 

I might be hungry later. What are you

making us for dinner tonight? Tomorrow?

 

I would be willing to share what stock I have,

from my college notes to the new tin roof,

 

from these wild grape vines to the air compressor,

such as it is, if you would pick up this rock

 

and place it under the corner of the barn,

or at the very least, if you, too,

 

could find it in your mouth to call us us.

Try and I will be your best customer

 

when you are shopping for a new me,

or whenever you might pawn what you hold close.

 

 

 

Gordon Lang teaches high school English and journalism.  He was the 2011 NEATE Poet of the Year and is the treasurer of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and a state advisor and local coach for Poetry Out Loud.  His work has appeared in various poetry journals, in the 2008 and 2010 editions of The Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire, and in the anthology This Assignment Is So Gay.  His first book, No Match for a Scarecrow, is now in its second edition, and his second, Graphic Sax and Violins, is forthcoming. He is currently editing the Poetry Society’s anthology of poems about aging and memory, You Must Remember This.