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Roads of Potter County

Finally Spring has come north here—
Always my favorite time of year.
Potter will tease you in some way—
Tomorrow might be a snowy day.

Instead there came the green of grass,
The white of snow its height surpassed.
I rode and mowed without a pain,
Across the lawn I would maintain.

But Potter’s roads my curse remains.
The holey asphalt and the bumpy lanes,
While down the road slow trucks I pass,
Inflicting torment on back and ass.

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Frank Rable is a poet living in Pennsylvania.

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11 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Potter’s potholes seem like those where I live. There is both a humor side and a well-expressed frustration side to your poem.

    Reply
  2. Paul A. Freeman

    A lovely dose of humour to start the day.

    Thanks for the read, Frank, and sorry about the bruised butt.

    Reply
  3. Frank Rable

    Thank you for your comment Roy. I have a good friend who lives there year round. The works of God in Potter County are beautifully manifest. Some refer to it as “God’s Country”. The works of man there, particularly secondary roads, do not show a similar devotion to the task.

    Reply
  4. Frank Rable

    The bruised butt belongs to a good friend who is a pastor there. He doesn’t just stay put. He gets around to where he is needed, despite the real pain he feels.
    He’s not complaining so much as noting the irony that cutting the lawn gives a smoother ride. In my mind, if there is irony, there must be humor, and there must be a poem in it.
    Paul, I’m happy to start off your day by sharing my poem with you and I thank you for reading it.

    Reply
  5. Russel Winick

    Haven’t been there, but I can relate. Nice work, Frank.

    Reply
  6. Stephanie Pickering

    I thoroughly enjoyed this, I close my eyes and can feel each pothole pitching the vehicle to and fro. It is nice to see that potholes are one thing that unites us all as Americans.

    Reply
    • Frank Rable

      Thank you, Stephanie! I ‘m glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you dodge the potholes. All of them. Now you reminded me of something I was told about the Minneapolis area. It is said that they only have two seasons, which are Winter and Road Repair.

      Reply
  7. Margaret Coats

    Frank, my dad’s family is from the Pottsville area (Schuylkill County) where roads seem the same–until summer arrives and the entire state settles down to slowed traffic during continual road repair. I suppose there would be less torment if we could get where we’re going by unhindered driving on lawns!

    Reply
    • Frank Rable

      Yes, Margaret, you’re right about that, I think. A nice smooth lawn instead of the Penndot version of smooth asphalt.

      Reply
  8. Christian Muller

    Lovely poem. Excellent iambic tetrameter, with some healthy breaks in the rhythm.

    Reply

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