Isn’t often you see a hole dug
as deep as this one up here so
when the county came to dig it
most of the old men came around
sometime during the day to watch.

So there were usually four
or five guys standing around
watching three guys standing around
watching one guy dig, and the boss
came by twice to check, and the Power
& Light guys stopped by too.

And the kids on their trikes,
painted red white & blue,
were warned “don’t get too close”
but did and it was all too much
for Happy, Ray’s penned up
husky pup, who’s learned to ignore
the tomcat’s strut or another
fat rabbit fattening upon
clover in the patchy lawn.

Lunchtime, the crew took their pails
to the shady side of the truck
and someone brought ice tea
and Ray smuggled them a beer each.
Then it was back to work so
a different guy dug and Ray took
the Buick to the Super A
for popsicles and more beer.

Bruce Taylor is the Poet Laureate of the city of Eau Claire and curator of Local Lit. His latest book is In Other Words. “Wednesday: The Hole” originally appeared in Pity the World: Poems Selected and New (Plainview Press 2005) and is reprinted by permission of the author. Learn more about Bruce.