Dog Days on the Leash

For putting the dog days on the leash, we would give thee praise, our Father. 

We farmers come now to the day of reckoning. 

We can see where we plowed deep and where we cut corners. 

Reverently we celebrate the loaf-mass of our forefathers and we place on thine altar the first fruits of our harvest; if needs be we will bring more to feed all thy lambs. 

And now bless us as we show the firstlings of our flocks and herds for ribbons of white and yellow and red and blue. 

Help us like real men to be glad with what we get; and to accept the adjudgment in humble assurance that with thy continued help we can do even better in producing the meats and the milk, the bread and the butter, the cool fiber, and the warm, whereby little children flourish and the elder ones are comforted. 

Behold, O Lord, if the harvest truly is great, may we labor among the other seventy also. 

Amen. 

(excerpt from the book, The Farmer Gives Thanks; photo by TheDigitalArtist via pixabay.com)