Journey with John Stokes

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Can moon play

The clouds asked the trees

Can the moon come out to play

The trees replied to the clouds

Yes, but only for a spell

For his bedtime comes quickly

Crossing the branch

Back when Robinson Branch was low

A father and son hiked the Florida trail

Pondering if they could cross where the

oak tree fell

The son was the first to bravely balance the beam

The father followed shaky and on to the Shoals

together high fiving.

The old man came from the field where he had been plowing and quietly sat upon the steps in the shade of the dogtrot, not a word was spoken. As for me, I knew that my time among them was drawing to a close. I reverently gathered my things and bid my own way out quietly, not disturbing the old man deep in thought of droughts and burning crops, down the old brick walk path and out of their lives, never to again see the old man, spent from fighting the unyielding fields.

The old man pondered

and the old man would ponder the boyhood days in Kentucky, before the depression years sent the families scattering, how the land willingly gave forth in her abundance, and the tobacco would slowly cure, as the old men upon the porches would inhale that sweet aroma of the bumper crop, season after season, and the boy would long for the sweet leafy smell, of the stories the old men would tell, and groaned again, wishing he was again among the men in those blue grass hills.

The old man and the boy

Johnclarestokes

the narrow deep rut drive to the county pavement came quickly, as the old place, once uncontainable, now fit in the rectangle of the rear view. The months became years, the years decades and the old man no longer sat upon the cool dog trot, the memory of him all but forgotten, as the little boy didn't even own a photo to recall the kindly paw who once sat him upon the blue tractor, his wide brimmed hat shading them as they turned furrows up and down ‘til sunset, the golden glow upon the parched Florida sand transforming the tired dirt into a new creation of an Eden mirage.