Ricketson’s Shanty
By Charles Weld
Twelve by fourteen feet, five windows, and a shed
roof. For heat—a stove piped into a brick chimney.
Outside—matched boards—clay color
with chocolate trim. Within—bare wood, no plaster.
A desk, table, secretary, and rude settle for a bed.
One jammed gun, twenty canes, twelve to fifteen pipes,
two spy glasses, and a box of old-fashioned jack-knives.
The pail of water behind the door served as a lavatory.
Two walls were covered with slips of paper. Take it easy,
suggested one. Another advised against being in a hurry.
All his host’s peculiarities were faithfully expressed.
High praise from Daniel Ricketson’s favorite house guest.
In the art of living, integrity was Thoreau’s basic test—
form inseparable from substance and by it possessed.
Charles Weld’s poems have been previously published in two chapbooks, “Country I Would Settle In”, Pudding House, 2004 and “Who Cooks For You?”, Kattywompus, 2012. Kelsay Books published a full-length collection, “Seringo”, in 2023. A mental health counselor, educated at Cornell and the University of Maine, he lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.
