|
|
M. A. Schaffner
reads
Westhof
in Real Audio
format.
|
 |
The Wagner Ranch has stood a hundred years.
Four rooms down and a loft. Johnny Kahlich,
the restorer, shows off his Brangus steers,
then holds a palm of hand-cut nails — red, thick,
triangular. Shows the parlor, stenciled
by a man whose son fought for his homeland
in the Great War, but let himself get killed.
Today the Texans around me still blend
Plattdeutsch with Cowboy. Aunt Ellenora
remembers the upright Pianola,
Saturday nights, and the young folks’ dances:
‘All the farmers had piano rolls then,
from ragtime to Deutschland uber Alles.’
They don’t know which uniform he died in.
|
|
|
