A Waste of Time in Three Parts

Part 1

My ex-husband was building our dream home
On land that wasn’t his
My inheritance – a quarter section with a fallow triangle
Where the pivot didn’t reach
Among the weeds he pored a concrete pad
Had the walls up
Talked up his design the whole family would love
AS if he could read our minds
Yet he was shook when I left him
And the dream house sits fallow
In the triangle of weeds that the pivot can’t reach
On my inherited land.
The walls collapsed, the brand new windows, never installed
And could have been salvaged for a refund
Sorry, darling, if you can’t know my soul
And you can’t know your own
We are justified in thinking it was a complete waste of time.

Part 2

My daughter borrowed the truck, a vehicle, not hers,
inherited from my ancestors.
An old Ford F150 seen many years as a homesteading farm hand
But, she needed a ride to a party
The truck must have been relieved to be used so frivolously
And I let her take it since all the dignified work was done.
But her inexperience tipped that truck into a lake
 and she came crying back to me to save it.
I packed up the tractor, the bus, the tow truck, the ancestors
And rushed to the lake to salvage the truck
Like maybe I could salvage my daughter.
And, as it turns out, I could.
I didn’t even need any tools, or tows, merely my bare hands
For the truck of my ancestors was light as a feather
I saved it from drowning in an instant.
So sorry, darling, if you can’t know my strength
And you can’t know your own
We are justified in thinking it was a complete waste of time

Part 3

And what about you? My love?
Will we build a house together?
Will the foundation be borrowed? Or salvaged? Or stable?
Will you put the family truck to good use?
Or drive it into the lake and come back crying to be saved?
So sorry, darling, if you can’t know my trauma
And you can’t know your own
We are justified in thinking time doesn’t matter
It isn’t time we can count on
Time was never ours to begin with
Only distance matters in the end
Only distance
Or the lack thereof.

Author’s Biography

Halli Reid has works published with Renaissance Press,  Lintusen Press, Bannister Press and many others.  She is an artist, librarian and crazy cat lady. She enjoys dirt under her fingernails, floss between her teeth and cheesecake.