Used to drive
A trailer-full
Of watermelons
Back from Georgia

He paid my brother and I
Cash
To wake up at 4am
And help him
Move the melons
From the trailer
To the cold truck

He’d stand in between
The trailer and truck
And hold each melon
On his knee
While he wrote a price
In permanent marker

“This is a biggun”
Holding it
On either end
Sizing it up
With a satisfied smirk
Squinting
In the shed light

17.00
He wrote on it
And he always underlined
The two zeroes

But nobody could read
His writing
At the market

Shoppers would ask
How much for this one
And they’d point

I’d look and
Make an attempt
To decipher
The markings
I already knew
Were illegible

Even if they hadn’t
Smeared
From the moisture
In the cold truck

I’d do my best
Farmer-Jim impression
Size it up
With a satisfied smirk
And say,
“That one right there
Is 20,
But I’ll give it to ya
For 18.”

June 26, 2021 at 06:07PM