Corn Rider

2003

48" X 28"

Oil on Panel

In the Artist's Collection

In September
the sides come off the hay wagons.
The dusty flatbeds are slowly pulled to the roadside
with mountains of freshly harvested pumpkins.
The nights are getting cooler.
The air moving between the branches of the red oaks is as crisp as the
empire apples that are ready for picking.
Gulliver and I have been hiking over the county hills and fields all morning.
I roll down the windows
and let the truck wander along the back roads home.

We pass field after field of corn.
Waves of tall spiky blades of green
left to dry in the last of the season’s sun. An autumn ochre seeping into the stalks and gold from the ground up.
I slow down pulling over into a turnout
and walk over the low ruts and trodden wheat stems
to stand before the towering wall and take in the sharp patterned streams of brilliant colors.

Anyday now the harvesters will roar through these fields.
Separating cobs from slender stalks
and leaving a foot high stubble of brittle stems in row after row across the hillsides.
I’ve got my pumkin on the back porch steps.
And the studio windows are open to the autumn breeze
to the distant rustling of the last of the corn.