Unlike the other farmer’s yards,
spread with gravel
or pulverized to dusty dirt,
his was a grassy spread -

not an indication of its worth
but of slackness toward his daily work.
Long-jawed, red-haired Augie
was a bachelor man of little words.

One afternoon as neighbors (come to visit)
pitched their worries to the air,
Augie danced a lively jig, stomping some
they thought in senseless fun…

but what they gathered
as he breathless stammered out the fact,
was that a mouse ran up, around and down
the inside of his pants.