A Smallholder's Prayer

Broom Handle, my trusted friend

Thou art always at my side.

Thou leadeth me unafraid into the fields

and the dark places behind the barn.

Fierce destroyer of ant mounds

and turner-over of ooky things,

Thou warneth me of snakes and other crawlies.

I pray that thou wilt never be split in twain,

and that thou wilt deliver me from nighttime raccoon invasions

and ankle-spraining holes.

Please continue to guide wayward poultry

and put fiesty roosters in their place

forevermore.

Amen.