Cigarettes and Hunting Hats
written by: Elizabeth Ricketson
@LRicketson
Pick-up trucks growled up the gravel drive.
One then another.
A third screamed in and
bounced over the hardened ruts.
Heat hovered close to the earth while
the hills were dusted in mist.
5:49 a.m.
Doors pushed open with an urgency.
A blur of workers
scattered.
Cigarettes smoldered in strong stained hands.
Sleeveless.
Shirtless.
Hunting hats.
Baseball caps.
Nighttime lingered
on strands of tousled hair grazing
weathered necks.
Experience imprinted by each footfall as they
walked the pitch like a flat
in worn leather boots.
Ladders purposefully strewn from
left to right while
hammers swung in unison.
Muttered conversations
rose off the metal roof in intermittent rasps.
A smoke?
Yeah.
One side
Then the other.
10:15 a.m. they
Steal away.
One then another.
The third too.
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