{"id":44651,"date":"2024-10-01T17:52:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=44651"},"modified":"2024-10-01T17:52:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T21:52:15","slug":"nursery-rymhe-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2024\/10\/poetry-in-motion\/nursery-rymhe-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Nursery Rymhe Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>

We\u2019ve all had those times when we get a song stuck in our heads, right? How about a nursery rhyme? I was just rolling along, minding my own business, when out of nowhere I kept thinking about a nursery rhyme I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all heard before. I won\u2019t quote the whole thing here, but it says something like, \u201cThis old man, he plays one\u2026\u201d and continues with the familiar part about a knick-knack, paddy-whack, give a dog a bone\u2026 you know the one. The rhyme I\u2019m referring to has a pattern of starting with the number one and concludes with the number ten. This old man, he plays one\u2026 then he plays two\u2026 then three, and so on. So, if I can\u2019t get the thing out of my mind, I might as well get my own version down on paper. My version of this rhyme is about an old driver who works himself to the bone for his whole life, and never seems to take time off to actually go home. That is, until it\u2019s too late, and he finally goes home to Heaven. I wasn\u2019t really planning to write such a poem, but sometimes these things take a course of their own. Hopefully you\u2019ll enjoy my little spin on \u201cThis Old Man\u201d \u2013 and it won\u2019t get stuck in your head for too long! Thanks to my editor Dan Linss for providing this picture of Leon \u201cPopcorn\u201d Wheaton \u2013 an old school trucker and past 10-4 cover feature who left us several years ago.<\/p>

THIS OLD MAN
By Trevor Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>

This old man\u2026 he said once,
He\u2019d been on the road for months.
In a twin-stack, little Mack,
Drippin\u2019 lights and chrome\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 he pushed through,
He drove junk, but he made do.
With a few snacks, in a sack,
On the road alone\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 he ain\u2019t free,
He had ex-wives, more than three.
For a tin shack, it\u2019s a fact,
He paid on a loan\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 he wants more,
He drove truck from shore to shore.
And with few perks, he would work,
His fingers to the bone\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 loved to drive,
That\u2019s when he felt most alive.
With the smokestacks blowin\u2019 black,
He was in his zone\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 played with sticks,
A four speed, right behind a six.
He\u2019d push that little Mack,
And give the Dog a bone\u2026
But this old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 dreamed of Heaven,
He rarely stopped at hour eleven.
Just a two-pack, coffee black,
Subject of a poem\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 would not be late,
He pushed hard and tempted fate.
Cuttin\u2019 back and givin\u2019 slack,
Were nothing he had known\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 he took his time,
And tried to leave the past behind.
It was no act, it\u2019s just a fact.
He rode the road alone\u2026
This old man would not go home.<\/p>

This old man\u2026 to my chagrin,
I\u2019ll never see his face again.
In his twin-stack little Mack,
His name is carved in stone\u2026
This old man is rolling home!<\/p>

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all had those times when we get a song stuck in our heads, right? How about a nursery rhyme? I was just rolling along, minding my own business, when out of nowhere I kept thinking about a nursery rhyme I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all heard before. I won\u2019t quote the whole thing here, but it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44654,"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-44651","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\/44651","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=44651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44655,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44651\/revisions\/44655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}