So there we were
Karl and me and the baby Katy
Not such a baby, four years old. We
Moved into a shack on Brookfield Pond
With our dog Benjamin, the cat Teeda
And four geese.
All citified except for the geese.
The house was heated by a wood stove but we didn’t
Have wood
Or money.
In the winter when the town plow went by
Snow came through the cracks in the walls.
The toilet froze.
We thought it was an adventure.
As soon as the ice on the pond was solid we took a sled
Chainsawed down a tree on the shoreline, a dead elm donated
To us
And split the wood
Standing out on the ice in the wind
Using a maul and sledgehammer. We
Stacked the logs on the sled and towed it back to the house.
Elm is tricky to split
Doesn’t burn awfully hot
But it kept us warm enough
That winter.
And some years later
We got countrified.