"Late Crickets"

I like those crickets best
we hear after first frost

And they make me
think of my dead grandfather,
a railroad man,
palming his inlaid pocketwatch.

Even today, Thanksgiving,
by the shed—
one old-timer keeps at it.

From Good Lonely Day, by John Clarke '59, published by The Backwaters Press. Clarke, who studied with John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon, is a professor emeritus at Gettysburg College, where for many years he directed the program in the writing of poetry and fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.