Spring Forward
or Time and Time Again
~ by Mark Blackwell
Dear Readers( if any), I have to begin this exercise in prose and poetry with a caveat— I may have written this before or something like it. The subject is still on my mind, and I’ ll probably write about it again.
Ode to Spring in Brown County
The daffodils are daffling The dogwoods are in bud The crocuses are croaking My road is ankle-deep in mud The winter’ s ice has melted The snow is now all gone Uncovering the autumn leaves Lying unraked on the lawn It’ s springtime in the Hills O’ Brown The creek-fords are aflood My spirit’ s free, my heart’ s unbound But still, I’ m ankle deep in mud I’ m feeling light and springy Spring is in my blood But I’ m up to my ankles In Brown County Mud
We are just about to put another winter behind us and that means spring is just ahead. Spring is something to look forward to— at least until the words“ spring” and“ forward” come together. The thing I have avoided thinking about for last few months is no longer avoidable— Daylight Savings Time( DST).
I remember hearing a story about a government man trying to explain the concept to an old Native American feller. The G-man is going on, extolling the various wonders of this example of temporal wizardry. He talked on and on about the benefits to industry, the economy, and the common man. He goes on about how DST is good for man and beast. He only pauses when he notices the elder slowly shaking his head.“ What? You still don’ t get it?” asked the bureaucrat. The old feller just replied“ Only a paleface could believe that he can cut a foot off of the top of a blanket sew it onto the bottom and have a longer blanket.” I side with the Native on this. You can say that farmers have more time in the field but I say they don’ t need it any more. Maybe,
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38 Our Brown County March / April 2016