{"id":44376,"date":"2024-09-01T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T15:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=44376"},"modified":"2024-09-01T11:50:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T15:50:15","slug":"rocks-and-cows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2024\/09\/poetry-in-motion\/rocks-and-cows\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocks And Cows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While recently listening to the radio rolling down the boulevard on my daily routine, I heard some conversations about a guy in Minnesota who was invited to join the efforts of a certain campaign to occupy the White House for a few years. I have never heard of this guy before, but I imagine those of you who live in Minnesota are pretty familiar with him. This man made comments about the political demographics in the state that he governs. He pointed out the rural areas of the state and said, \u201cIt\u2019s mostly rocks and cows that are in that area.\u201d Well, okay\u2026 never mind that those areas are also comprised of the hardworking families that come from generations of proud Minnesotans. Ranchers, farmers, truckers, and countless others who work hard and pay taxes to a man who wishes to dictate how their money should be spent \u2013 and how their lives should be lived. A comment like his \u201crocks and cows\u201d comment implies a stunning disregard and perhaps disdain for a massive and crucial portion of the population in his state. The folks in those rural areas are not \u201csmelly Walmart people,\u201d and they aren\u2019t \u201cdeplorable,\u201d either. Rural people aren\u2019t rocks, and they certainly aren\u2019t cows. Not one to let a good catch phrase pass me by, I thought I might write this poem about a symbolic portrayal of a bull-hauler who works himself thin to support a way of life he knows and loves, while also being expected to fund the opulent lifestyle of a disconnected politician enjoying the fruits of another man\u2019s labor. Our streets are made of rocks. My meals are made of cows. And I appreciate the folks who bring such things into my daily routine. Photo credit goes to our very own 10-4 contributor and friend Stephanie Haas.<\/p>

ROCKS AND COWS
By Trevor Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>

Denim jeans and a pearl-snap shirt,
Leather boots, and bills that hurt.
A trailer full of future meals,
A bull rack, ridin\u2019 eighteen wheels.<\/p>

He loaded in the Land of Lakes,
With thirty head of future steaks.
Generations paved the way,
Of hauling cattle, straw and hay.<\/p>

But over there, in ol\u2019 St. Paul,
They don\u2019t seem to care at all.
They\u2019re lost in that which they espouse,
While he\u2019s living with the rocks and cows.<\/p>

Rocks that pave the interstate,
And cows that fill the dinner plate.
Both are how he makes his pay,
He\u2019s proud that he was raised that way.<\/p>

His paycheck barely pays the bills,
For wear and tear, and tires and wheels.
The things he needs to keep his haul,
And a big brick mansion in St. Paul.<\/p>

He\u2019s overlooked by politicians,
And clinging to his pre-emissions.
He\u2019s earned the sweat upon his brows,
Out there with the rocks and cows.<\/p>

They\u2019ll never set foot in his town,
But they\u2019ll try to shut his diesel down.
While dining on their steaks and wine,
They\u2019re robbing him of his last dime.<\/p>

The man who rules the North Star State,
Is now somebody\u2019s running-mate.
They only seek to gain control,
But a bull-rack wants to rock and roll!<\/p>

Those faded jeans and cowboy boots,
The hay bales, and the cattle chutes.
Those pre-emissions diesel clouds,
Are out there with the rocks and cows.<\/p>

They want more than he\u2019s got to give,
To supplement their narrative.
But he just wants to live his life,
And raise his kids and love his wife.<\/p>

The politician doesn\u2019t care,
Behind brick walls, in a leather chair.
The trucker rides a worn-out seat,
On taxpayer funded, torn-up streets.<\/p>

Rocks make up that mansion there,
And cows adorn that leather chair.
The irony just fits, somehow,
They live among the rocks and cows.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While recently listening to the radio rolling down the boulevard on my daily routine, I heard some conversations about a guy in Minnesota who was invited to join the efforts of a certain campaign to occupy the White House for a few years. I have never heard of this guy before, but I imagine those<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44378,"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-44376","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\/44376","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=44376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44380,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44376\/revisions\/44380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}