Scarecrow

Eyes that can’t cry yet a face full of sorrow.
A mouth without joy and no kiss there to borrow.
Scars from the weather. His soul looks undone
While mocked by a passer drunken and young.

But that passer falls down from the back of my hand.
“Your mouth without thought is the curse of this land!
At him do you laugh when he works for his name?
Be gone wasted youth or feel my hand again!”

Pit pat and flap are the shoes of the fleeing.
Change your ways, my heart is pleading.
But still no response from my friend tied to his fate.
The youth has gone far as I climb the field’s gate.

I walk to the sadness propped up and forgot.
I study his torture; consider his lot

His back in such agony and feet stuck in clay.
A bold poker face enduring each day
Formed by a man with intention to frighten
But in living this life his joy does not heighten!

I have lingered here long and looked on with pity.
So much like him I am when returned to the city.

But if his mouth I un-sew then what would he say?
If I untied his back would he then run away?
Or would he just linger with no lover to hold?
He is loveless like many that fear getting old.

I untie the scarecrow along with my fears.
Un-stitch his mouth and free him from years
Of enslavement to toil and what ‘they’ think is right
Glad with bare hands I freed him from plight.

A ragged breath pulls past liberated tongue
And exhaled like the laughter of one who is young
His eyes grew so tearful and shaking his head
I’ll not forget what my scarecrow said…


“I have seen many come and then watched them pass.
No thought for my freedom - they haunt me with laughs.
The crows and the vultures may pray on my treasure,
‘Coz when stuck to a pole, gold gives us no pleasure!”

“It’s a friend that I wanted to hold me at night.
When the cold muscles in, the alone it would bite.
But to thank you my friend I have not a copper.
What should I do to make my thanks proper?”

“Live life,” I replied and those words made him sway.
“Know love above all and don’t let them say
What is right and what’s wrong – just follow your heart.
If you don’t live life like that, then there’s no need to start.”

“The pole is still waiting – so what will you do?”

With a smile he said "Thank you my friend, I bid you adieu."