Preachers lounger

 The vacant lounger

John Clare Stokes

It was Preachers favorite lounger

Long May Saturday's in Sopchoppy shade

He sat and pondered the sabbath sermon

Ants working in the sand providing the text

Long Mays since the dry rot took its toll

In March 2011 pappa went to the shades of light

The empty lounger to dark dauber homes

But toward the end of one May

When thoughts of Preacher held sway

We re-webbed the old lounger

Knocked away the dirt dauber nests

And fed them to the ants

That had come

From ole far away Sopchoppy.

Then one day in a recent May

We searched for Preachers lounger

But the metal men had carried it away

We ordered another and set it up

In the new grass above the fire ants

Not the gentle kind that used to come

from far away Sopchoppy.

We miss Preachers lounger.

We miss Preacher.