A NIMROD'S BIRTH ( formerly 1st untitled)

I won't have time to post this Monday. Perhaps I'll be forgiven for posting it today

My memory takes me way back when
I was maybe six or eight
a Memphis city kid back then
I know that I could hardly wait

Tomorrow this tow-headed son
goes hunting rabbits with his dad
I just know it's going to be fun
having heard tales since a wee lad

How can I hope to go to sleep
on this cold night in bed so warm......
Wake Up! Time to out of bed creep!
rabbits await and nearly swarm!

Mom has fixed biscuits and gravy
milk for kids, coffee for dad
uncombed hair is tangled and wavy
up 'fore the sun is not so bad

Now we load into the station wagon
including a beagle name of Kim
who's alert with tail a'waggin'
dad,me, and my brother Jim

Time to wake up once again
we're now at our destination
an overgrown and brushy wide flood plain
Kim hits the briers, no hesitation

Suddenly he strikes a trail
revealed by both howls and barks
the prey will circle without fail
I flush a flock of meadow larks

I stay with dad ( too young for a gun )
brother James goes toward the right
as we hear beagle music, having fun
awaiting hare to come in sight

Kim circles closer, guns go bang !
rascally rabbit ziggs and zaggs
dad and Jim both holler Dang!
they've missed this one won't go in bag

The rabbit swims a nearby river
we call and call Kim off the trail
excitement, not cold, makes me shiver
here comes Kim wagging his tail

We only hunted half a day
I know now because I was so small
how many rabbits I can't say
but we all really had a ball

Back to the old car, unload the guns
load the dog and stow the game
a father and his two young sons
no other hunt will be the same

That day I fell in love with woods
an appreciation still held dear
I still own rugged hunting goods
and love the autumn of the year

That first hunt is so far away
fifty years, eight hundred miles
dad and James now gone to stay
I still recall the hunts and smiles

Now my hunting's solitary
and won't go on too many years
for time counts and is arbitrary
and cares not for an old man's tears