Linking with dVerse Poets for Haibun Monday…
November 2016 “super moon”
I remember the harvest moon when we still picked corn. My husband’s father hunkered inside the tractor-mounted picker on a clear October night. He throttled ahead, pushing the machine’s snouts into the rows of dry corn, stripping off ears, spitting them into the trailing wagon and leaving bent stalks in its wake. At the end of the field, the satisfied farmer unhitched his full wagon by pulling a rope and riding ahead to wait.
Raised as city girl and college-educated, I learned to drive tractor and maneuver an empty wagon behind the picker, unhitch, then turn to back tractor in front of full wagon. It was like a mechanical dance when performed smoothly. I’d hop down and run to lift tongue of empty wagon in line as picker slowly backed to it until holes lined up and I could drop hitch pin into place. Dad turned machine back into standing corn for next pass across field where my husband met him with another empty wagon.
After hitching up full wagon, I’d climb back on tractor, and haul my load to a corn crib; one of our round wire cribs or a wooden-slat shed. I drove straight past the folded elevator; dismounted to lower heavy hopper to ground. Climbed on tractor again to back the wagon against hopper and raise wagon box with hydraulic hoist, tipping it back. A utility tractor ran the elevator as I reached over to open/close the wagon’s small back door to allow rolling corn ears to fall into the hopper at my feet. A moving chain with metal flights carried the corn up, up, up to top of roof where it dumped ears into open crib.
I wore earplugs to deaden the noise, my skin chafed in the cold wind, my eyes protested the dust and my body fought fatigue after an already long day of harvest (switching wagon, hauling load, emptying wagon, repeat). But to witness an abundant crop under a beautiful moon felt like God smiling his blessing on us.
shadow hides raccoon
full moon rises on cornfields
kernels of plenty
a poem in my pocket 
Nov 16, 2016 @ 12:13:14
Wow – working by moonlight, tough but wonderful if you get chance to pause and take it all in.
Nov 16, 2016 @ 12:16:48
Never thought of it as a a privilege but perhaps…thank you!
Nov 16, 2016 @ 12:33:14
There’s something about working with other people at odd times – I’ve found it weirdly exhilarating at times. Farmers seem to work hardest when the weather is good, which always seems a little unfair.🌝
Nov 16, 2016 @ 12:34:34
Agreed! 😉
Nov 16, 2016 @ 00:55:49
Thanks for sharing your harvest story. It’s important work and often overlooked.
Nov 16, 2016 @ 08:16:09
Thank you for reading!
Nov 15, 2016 @ 22:31:26
Hard work no doubt, but it sounds idyllic.
Nov 15, 2016 @ 15:51:12
Wonderful stuff…beautiful haiku
Nov 15, 2016 @ 16:04:24
Thanks, Paul.
Nov 15, 2016 @ 12:32:07
A wonderful rich harvest and beautiful haiku :o)
Nov 15, 2016 @ 14:37:49
Thank you!
Nov 15, 2016 @ 12:02:08
God is the Moon
God is the Harvest
God is the Sun
and that
my FriEnd
Lynn..
is liGht
enough for me..:)
Nov 15, 2016 @ 12:15:52
God is definitely the Source of Light 😊
Nov 15, 2016 @ 12:40:19
Yes A
Only source..:)
Nov 15, 2016 @ 11:21:07
I have not experienced this Lynn but to till and nurture the land until it gives us abundance is a blessing indeed ~ A marvel to witness indeed ~
Nov 15, 2016 @ 12:05:58
Thanks for your comment, Grace!
Nov 15, 2016 @ 08:43:09
I remember my grandparents working at night as well and then later, my own parents. That feeling of plenty can’t be beat. Love the “country” haiku with raccons and kernels of plenty.
Nov 15, 2016 @ 08:45:10
Thanks, Toni…we did it “old school” then but combine crops now.
Nov 15, 2016 @ 07:26:44
Sounds like an exhausting, and yet fulfilling day. Yes! A God blessed day indeed!
Nov 14, 2016 @ 23:49:40
I do love the thought of a harvest moon that really brings a harvest
Nov 15, 2016 @ 06:30:39
Yes, it really helps farmers working at night.