{"id":12574,"date":"2016-12-01T19:57:59","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T00:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=12574"},"modified":"2016-12-01T19:57:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T00:57:59","slug":"what-do-you-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2016\/12\/poetry-in-motion\/what-do-you-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture this: you\u2019re sitting around a table at a restaurant with a few friends and some other people you don\u2019t know. Maybe you\u2019re meeting some friends of friends or whatever. As everyone mingles and discusses their daily lives, they talk of their office jobs or their schools and such. Each of them seems to understand and relate to one another and nod in agreement with every topic regurgitated. But, then someone asks you about yourself… what do you do for a living? You reply that you\u2019re a truck driver. Suddenly, intrigue settles in among the others. People look at you like a dog looks at a high-pitched noise \u2013 tipping their heads in an expression of confusion and curiosity. You could\u2019ve told them you\u2019re a \u201cDomestic Relocation Engineer\u201d and they may have lightened up a bit, but it\u2019s too late \u2013 the cat is out of the bag. You\u2019re a truck driver. Now the questions start piling on like the press at a controversial political event: \u201cWhat do you haul? Where do you go? Why are trucks so big? Do all truck drivers take speed to stay awake?\u201d Then, you get the comments like, \u201cI always let a trucker over in front of me when I see them trying to merge\u201d (uh-huh… everyone says that, but few actually do it). A friend of mine used to say that when anyone asked him what he hauls or who he hauls for he always said, \u201cI haul Bibles for Jesus.\u201d And that typically ended the conversation. I thought that was clever and funny (credit to Bill Mowatt for that one). I don\u2019t mind answering questions about our industry to people who are curious. It\u2019s flattering and fun to give them a glimpse of life outside their neighborhoods. This poem, which I call \u201cI Haul it All!\u201d is one I hope you\u2019ll remember to look at and read to your inquisitive friends, when the conversation turns to you and your trucking life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI HAUL IT ALL!\u201d<\/strong>
\n By Trevor Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DecPoemPic\"<\/a>I get lots of people,
\nAsking what it is I pull.
\nAnd, how much does my trailer weigh,
\nWhenever it is full?<\/p>\n

People always wonder,
\n\u2018bout the places that I\u2019ve seen.
\nAsking silly questions,
\n\u2018bout the business I am in.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mind them asking,
\nAnd I\u2019m flattered that they care.
\nI just tell \u2018em, frankly,
\nThat I\u2019ll go anywhere.<\/p>\n

If you find me eastbound,
\nComing out of Frisco Bay.
\nI\u2019m likely full of wine or seafood,
\nHeaded on its way.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ll be southbound,
\nOut of eastern Washington.
\nLoaded full of apples,
\nPears and \u2018taters on the run.<\/p>\n

You might see me loaded,
\nFull of old Wisconsin cheese.
\nOr streakin\u2019 across the desert,
\nWith a load of BVDs.<\/p>\n

I left that ol\u2019 Sunshine State,
\nWith oranges on my back.
\nAnd chickens out of Arkansas,
\nTo be somebody\u2019s snack.<\/p>\n

Yogurt out of Twin Falls,
\nLamb, from L.A. piers.
\nAnd produce into Hunt\u2019s Point,
\nBut I ain\u2019t been out there in years.<\/p>\n

Paper, from Port Townsend,
\nSteel, from Bethlehem.
\nPeppers, from Nogales,
\nAnd books from Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Kraft, from caves in Carthage,
\nBeer, from Boulder town.
\nJust load it up, and sign the bills,
\nAnd I\u2019ll be hammer down!<\/p>\n

Whatever I am hauling,
\nAnd wherever I may roam.
\nI am quite content, here,
\nIn my home away from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture this: you\u2019re sitting around a table at a restaurant with a few friends and some other people you don\u2019t know. Maybe you\u2019re meeting some friends of friends or whatever. As everyone mingles and discusses their daily lives, they talk of their office jobs or their schools and such. Each of them seems to understand<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poetry-in-motion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12574"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13120,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions\/13120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}