A Scarecrow Looks Back on his Life (Edit)

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A Scarecrow looks back on his Life

Before Oz
I had control of my life
I had a purpose
a reason for existence

a modus operandi:
stand in a field
and scare crows
that’s it, that’s all.

It was lonely at times,
I admit, particularly
at night, but occasionally
a farmer returning

drunk across the fields
would stop and tell me his life story
then fall asleep, snoring
and farting at my feet

and yes, oh yes
I listened in on
acts of intimacy
on hot summer nights

and heard sounds
that made my straw curl;
then Oz occurred
and it was no longer

about presence
it was about absence
the absence of a brain;
children would circle me

and sing that stupid song
suddenly I was pathetic, forlorn;
what got me most was the
sheer illogicality of it all –

to yearn for a brain, one must
have a brain to begin with,
sometimes, I think the sole function
of a brain is to yearn…..

hang on a minute
I’m sure I saw that same crow yesterday
Look! He won’t come within twenty feet of me!
I’ve still got it! I’ve still got it!

Taking part in Open Link Weekend over at earthweal.

14 thoughts on “A Scarecrow Looks Back on his Life (Edit)”

  6. Brendan

    A really well told tale Jim, buttoned with “sometimes, I think the sole function / of a brain is to yearn…” When a scarecrow’s job is just to frighten off birds and bear witness to human folly. Then came Oz.

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  7. phillip woodruff

    i really don’t want to tell film makers and fairytale writers how to do their jobs, but if i was a scarecrow in a cornfield… i mean brains are nice and all, but i would’ve asked the wizard for cable. what’s a scarecrow in a cornfield to do it he can’t watch a cornhuskers game? enjoyed your poem jim

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