Patchwork

Noticed furrowed fields when out and about this week.

Reminded of this story.

Patchwork

Gleaming fields of ripening grain

nurtured by the sun and rain

swaying in the breeze -

oats, corn, soybeans, peas,

wheat, barley, silage, clover,

timothy or alfalfa.

Yellows, greens and browns.

Patchwork on the ground.

Fit together to form a whole

by several hardworking souls.

Squared corners or curved

filling in the grooves.

Golden oats shimmering.

In the breeze sashaying.

Music is made

then comes the blade

to shock into piles

mile after mile.

In the plot over there leaps

tasseled corn ready to reap.

Planted in straight rows.

Ten feet high it grows.

When the frost comes down

the stalks will turn to bronze.

Parcels of soybeans and peas

where bees buzz and stop to tease

pollinating

the blossoms

waiting to mature and age

in fields of green foliage.

Flaxen heads of wheat

soaking in the heat.

Kernels gleaned in the sun one day will make flour

after combining hour after hour.

Up, down and around

from sun up to sun down.

Down the road a stretch

more grains for market.

Glistening with dew

under skies of blue

or tawny-brown becomes

under the setting sun.

As far as the eye can see

are fields of green barley.

Squared off into acres the fields

will produce a bumper yield.

Bordered by a black ribbon road

leading to market where sold.

Miles and miles of acres

waiting to be sun-cured

after seeds were planted

and the good Lord watered

form patchwork pieces gathered together

joined by family, friends, and neighbors.

Several acres of clover, timothy,

alfalfa ready for baling early

under the noonday sun

right up until sundown.

This parcel owned by generations

of farmers making a living.

There's a tract of pumpkins

turning orange before picking

next to a cornfield where a maze

will soon confuse and amaze.

You might even buy maize

with kernels of browns and maize.

Patches sewn together by hedges or creeks

or babbling brooks which quietly speak.

Patchwork pieces of greens and golds

or brown when the earth is unfurled.

There are squares and rectangles

and irregular triangles.

Patchwork earth neatly arrayed.

Patchwork lives from disarray.

Patchwork overalls from tears.

Patchwork everyone wears.

Patchwork puts back together

what has come untethered.

Rather lives or acres

patchwork holds a cure.

Acres planted with grains

comes to life again.

Lives patch-worked back together

grow healthier and stronger.

Patchwork neatly forms

a beautiful new form

for pieces are stitched making something new

out of rips and tears - and furrows, who knew?

Patchwork makes whole

what used to be holes.

* * * * *

The pieces of your life form a whole

where joys and sorrows daily flow.

In the end someone beautiful is formed

like unmatched patchwork pieces being sewn.

All together more pleasing than plain -

the patchwork of our lives makes right again.

...beauty instead of ashes...

Isaiah 61:3

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