Tag Archive | bardofthewoods.com
Mom
By Don Kenton Henry Yours was the first voice I heard Each breath you took you shared with me, My heart beat but for you You kept your place each time I stumbled, though everything inside you begged, “Pick him up!” But you were there when I took my first steps You counseled me through […]
Only One Version
By Don Kenton Henry There is only one version and you can’t buy it off the shelf If can be redeeming; It can be utterly cruel It shines bright when brought into the light Or it can haunt you in the dark of the night It’s the currency of the wise and the counterfeit […]
New Boots
FLASH FICTION BY DON KENTON HENRY When shopping for new boots, the cute young sales girl said, “How do you like these Old Gringo?” I replied, “Please don’t call me old!” She said, “No! The boots are made by Old Gringo!” (What a difference a comma makes!) So . . . I thought, “What the […]
Menagerie A Trois
By Don Kenton Henry The scene unfolded as Argo, The Strong Man, went looking for Bertha, the Fat Lady. The Fells-Floto Circus was camped on the banks of the Colorado River, just east of Austin, as it was each September during its six-day run. Argo rounded the corner exiting the arcade strip and walked past […]
Ghost Ship
By Don Kenton Henry A man has to have worked very hard at being this alone I am asked if this was always my plan I reply, you mean to inhabit a one person home To be an island unto myself , a solitary man It took years to lose the people, friends, pets, […]
The Midnight Farmboy
(Plagiarism―even regarding a title―is not my style. But when life imitates art to this degree . . . Well, hell . . . sometimes you just have to commit the crime.) By Don Kenton Henry The red, white and chrome Continental Trailways bus wound southbound down that ribbon of Highway 59 ensconced in the darkness of […]
Better’n Bread ‘N Butter Pickles
By Don Kenton Henry Nothing but the sound of crickets rose above the corn in the mid-day sun that hot July. I’d shut my tractor down, taken my brown bag and thermos and left the field for the row of trees bordering the Wabash. That river cut right through grandpa’s one hundred twenty acres and […]
SHE’S BEEN MISTREATED NOT DEFEATED
By Don Kenton Henry The Lady’s served her children well She’s known joy and she’s known hell She’s lost more than just one son and daughter too She’s been through tragedy and triumph Ever watchful and reliant And she does it all for me and you A shining beacon across the seas leading those […]
LET THE LEAVES BE POETRY
By Don Kenton Henry You were a beauty rare I was a man with dearth of words A paucity of poetry I claimed I cursed my thoughts should go unheard You, lover of song and mirth ― how could you have cared For I without a worthy tribute O what I’d given to […]
A JIM BEAM CHRISTMAS
By Don Kenton Henry King had a soft mouth. That’s what my dad always said. King was dad’s prize, field-bred and accomplished, orange and white Brittany Spaniel. A “soft mouth” is a bird hunter’s parlance for a dog that will retrieve without ruffling a feather or bruising an already damaged quarry. This, and […]
