Thomas Cannon

CONTACT:
Email: Tcbcannon@gmail.com
Website: https://thomascannonauthor.com/
Facebook group:  Oshkosh Poet Laureate https://www.facebook.com/groups/oshkoshpoetlaureate

BIO:
In August 2021, Thomas Cannon was selected as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Oshkosh. He is the author of the books The Tao of Apathy and Shattered. His poems and short stories have been published in various journals such as Midwestern Gothic and Corvus Review. He cohosts the YouTube show “Author Showcase” and is a founding member of the Lakefly Writers Conference in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

PUBLICATIONS:
The Tao of Appathy (2021), available for purchase on Amazon.
Shattered (2021), available for purchase on Amazon.
Wisconsin Time (2021), chapbook, available for purchase on Amazon.

Poetry

My Small Wisconsin Life

You have forgotten dusty roads

dogs flopped down under the pine tree

cats loitering on the milk-house steps

Dad out plowing

Mom simmering supper

Before second shift

after school chores,

                throwing hay from the mow

                busting bales open in the manger

                scraping the floor

                then enduring the cold crunch of lime

                      as you showered the cement

Dad opening the door to let Donna, Lulabelle,

Becky and the rest rush in with steamy breaths.

Too often you neglected

Dad’s stories as he’d put his hand on a cow’s back

                and sshoop-sshoop-shoop-shoop he had a milker on

standing in the doorway with him watching the evening sky,

zig-zagging three milkers across the aisle

                as the cows stared at the walls and waited their turn

WGN fading out on the am radio.

Too faded are the memories

So different was your life

driving tractor

                watching the ground roll by

                and daydreaming

                haying season

                the baler a three piece band setting the beat

                      loading the creaking wagon boat

                     as it navigated the alfalfa sea

                returning atop the rustling cargo of bales.

Your kids will never have a small Wisconsin life

                run through a cornfield

                race a bike down a worn cowpath,

                then explore cow-trampled woods

                feed a newborn calf

                build a hay fort

                run on sun-cured hayfields

                have dad always a walk away.

                have dad always a walk away.