Tricycles & Tractors by Sterling Warner

Image / Polesie Toys

Tricycles & Tractors

Below my house an old tractor red 

scooped the seashell driveway clean

graded level oceanic topsoil smooth

as a kitchen counter butcher’s block

preparing to host a 32-foot awning 

shelter for my boat, the Deborah Lynn 

the mermaid essence of my elder sister.

Stockpiling fishing gear, my mind’s eye

took flight hand and hand with Debbie

as we traveled back in time and settled

alongside my Grandfather’s garden—

a place he allowed her to destroy 

on her tricycle and me to plow down

with my own little red tractor.

We left ruts in the lawn and annihilated

his poppies, petunias, chrysanthemums, 

and lilies, treated us to Chicklets and Coca-cola®

then lit up a cigar, patted our young heads, 

plucked foliage from our vehicles’ wheels,

then planted new bulbs and cultivated flowers—

preparing for next week’s ritual gathering. 

We three lived in the present, seldom planning 

ahead; Mom’s teary confrontation hit 

sis and I like a seismic shift as we learned

our Grandpa’s massive coronary had occurred 

while whistling, writhing, and waxing Deb’s 

beloved tricycle, Ariel, plus my toy tractor, Red, 

waiting for our unpredictable mayhem to begin.

© Sterling Warner

Sterling Warner

Washington-based author, poet, and educator, Sterling Warner’s works have appeared in such magazines, journals, and anthologies as Verse-Virtual, Ekphrastic Review. Warner’s poetry/fiction includes Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps: Poems, Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poetry & Fiction, Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci, Abraxas: Poems, Gunilla’s Garden: Poems (2025), and Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories.  He currently writes, hosts “virtual” poetry/fiction readings, and enjoys fishing along the Hood Canal.

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