Mariana Ranch

Mariana Ranch

Houses spread far apart,
with big backyards. Large fields,
home to adolescent
trees, are scattered around
the forest with miles
of intertwined trails.
Mariana Ranch is
the neighborhood of
adventure, with so much
room for young boys to be
boys. So much to keep a
young child entertained.

Our options for the days
activities were endless.
riding dirt bikes through
the trails, hunting for birds
and other pests. We shot
arrows straight up
in the air and run away,
In hope of not getting hit.
we made Molotov cocktails,
and watch them light up everything
around us as they exploded.
when the July fourth came around,
loud bangs would irritate
everyone as we stormed
around with fireworks.
We would spend hours
riding off of the dirt jump
with our bikes in the lot
next door. In the winter,
We built some of the most
amazing snow forts.

At the end of the day,
we would go back into
our own houses, and look
forward for another day
of adventures

Tractors

            One of the topics or settings of Sutphen’s poems involves life on a farm. Tractors frequently come up in these poems that involve farms. In Tornado Warning, she writes, “…a red/ tractor pushed through the oat field, cutting/ down gold straw and beating a stream/ of grain into the wagon trailing behind/ in the stubble.” Sutphen simply describes one way that a tractor is used on a farm, shooting a stream of straw with just one plow through a field. And In Snow at the Farm she says I watch the red tractor moving/ back and forth through the blue/ and white / world, my father's/ hands at the wheel.” The way Sutphen describes a tractor plowing through snow, and what a huge difference a person tractor can make on a tractor. She says that as the tractor plows through the snow, a whole new world emerges, all at the hands of her father. And finally, in Girl on a Tractor “I/ learned to drive a tractor at just the right/ speed, so that two/ men, walking/ on either side of the moving wagon/ could each lift a bale, walk towards/ the/ steadily arriving platform and/ simultaneously hoist the hay onto/ the rack, … /my hand on the throttle,/carefully measuring out the pace.” In this poem, Sutphen describes what it’s like when she drives a tractor, how she controls it, and what it does. The way that Sutphen describes the use of a tractor, the difference it can make, and what its like for her to drive one in her poetry tells the reader how important and ordinary their role was when she grew up on a farm. 

Poem of the Day

The Day the Towers Fell

A sad day for America
As rejoicing rang from hell,
Awakening a mighty giant
On the day the towers fell.

Our hearts were saddened
As we watched this vicious act unfold,
As innocence met a fiery death
And seeds of war were sowed.

Shouts rang out from the middle east
That Allah has done his good
But no god joys in faultless deaths
Through certain cowards could.

America just sort of glides along,
But don't step on her toes ...
For her belief in right and justice
Will stomp out freedom's foes.


~ Author Unknown ~

Ungreatful

He goes to a school,
to get educated for
a brighter future.
But he does not pay
attention in class as his
teachers attempt to
share their knowledge,
letting it pass through
his head.

He has a computer,
for research, writing,
notes and studying.
But he procrastinates,
by playing games,
listening to music,
and watching videos,
for his entertainment.

He has opportunities
he uses as a break.
And a tool that
he uses as a toy.
How can one take
such things for granted?