Walking the polished cement floors of Home Depot
The rectangular green and white box called to me
"Lawn Boy - Grass Bag Kit"!
It loudly exclaimed
And upon a much smaller orange clearance sticker
Explaining its place upon a back-of-the-store end cap
"$9.99"
Was almost conspiratorially whispered to me
Acquiring this item would complete my set
Complementing the Lawn Boy mower
With matching chute and leaf bag kit
Which had been given to me by my father
This after yet another phone call half way across the country
Where I had mentioned that I missed our old Lawn Boy mowers
The ones from the 1970's and '80's
Lightweight two-stroke affairs of blue smoke and fury
He had almost made a fetish of them
Always having a couple extra old ones up in the attic
To be used for parts after Supermanning them back down
Using the twelve foot attic access in the garage
I'd called him in triumph
The day I'd bought my first broken down Harley Davidson
Starting it up and revving it so he could hear
The undoubtedly impressive sound through the phone
I'd called him in wonder
The day I'd discovered carburetor icing
As my truck chugged its way into work on a winter morning
With white frost coating the old small two barrel Rochester
But this news today
Was about Lawn Boy stuff
And just had to be shared!
I knew he'd be so pleased with my ten dollar trophy
Now this last time I called my father on the phone
He lay upon his front lawn
And never said a thing to me
All I heard were my mother's panicked words
"Your father's had a heart attack!
And I don't think he's living......"
Later
After the blur of travelling ten hours back home
To pick out his simple flat topped casket
And drop off his nice suit
So he could look good one more time
I took a few moments to sit near him when we were alone
So I could tell him what a great Lawn Boy part I'd found
And how it was going to collect grass like gangbusters
Even though that bit turned out to be a lie
As now more than a decade later
You can still walk to the back of my garage
And look up on my top shelf
Where a familiar green and white box resides quietly unopened
Forever proudly proclaiming though the years of dust:
"Lawn Boy - Grass Bag Kit........$9.99"
The rectangular green and white box called to me
"Lawn Boy - Grass Bag Kit"!
It loudly exclaimed
And upon a much smaller orange clearance sticker
Explaining its place upon a back-of-the-store end cap
"$9.99"
Was almost conspiratorially whispered to me
Acquiring this item would complete my set
Complementing the Lawn Boy mower
With matching chute and leaf bag kit
Which had been given to me by my father
This after yet another phone call half way across the country
Where I had mentioned that I missed our old Lawn Boy mowers
The ones from the 1970's and '80's
Lightweight two-stroke affairs of blue smoke and fury
He had almost made a fetish of them
Always having a couple extra old ones up in the attic
To be used for parts after Supermanning them back down
Using the twelve foot attic access in the garage
I'd called him in triumph
The day I'd bought my first broken down Harley Davidson
Starting it up and revving it so he could hear
The undoubtedly impressive sound through the phone
I'd called him in wonder
The day I'd discovered carburetor icing
As my truck chugged its way into work on a winter morning
With white frost coating the old small two barrel Rochester
But this news today
Was about Lawn Boy stuff
And just had to be shared!
I knew he'd be so pleased with my ten dollar trophy
Now this last time I called my father on the phone
He lay upon his front lawn
And never said a thing to me
All I heard were my mother's panicked words
"Your father's had a heart attack!
And I don't think he's living......"
Later
After the blur of travelling ten hours back home
To pick out his simple flat topped casket
And drop off his nice suit
So he could look good one more time
I took a few moments to sit near him when we were alone
So I could tell him what a great Lawn Boy part I'd found
And how it was going to collect grass like gangbusters
Even though that bit turned out to be a lie
As now more than a decade later
You can still walk to the back of my garage
And look up on my top shelf
Where a familiar green and white box resides quietly unopened
Forever proudly proclaiming though the years of dust:
"Lawn Boy - Grass Bag Kit........$9.99"
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