Vulture Acres

He started with half a pasture

and a grove of Soil Bank ash

when farms were selling faster

after a market crash.

He posted "Vulture Acres"

by the dirt track to his shack

on land no other takers

sought at the auction block.

Leasing fields from neighbors

who were old or going broke,

he shouldered barnyard labours

as an ox shoulders a yoke.

He built a cedar smokehouse

where his culled sows were cured

and added a redwood ranch house

when his cash flow was assured.

But he also bought the scripture

that told him all was dust,

however lush the pasture

where someone else went bust.

Timothy Murphy

From Very Far North, The Waywiser Press,
London, England, © 2002.  Reprinted by
permission of the author.

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