Corn Planting Moon
The Munson wagon was all set to go—
three yoke of oxen and a dairy cow,
feed, a water barrel and provisions
to last the journey and the summer months,
seeds of corn and wheat and flax, a hoe,
a shovel, scythe and rake, a spinning wheel,
a bucket, pots and pans, their clothes and linens
wrapped in Rachel’s heirloom coverlet.
They left the first of May in ’72.
A Friday. Diah knew, but let it pass.
Diah walked ahead with the nameless sumpter.
Rachel, Wil, and Stephen manned the wagon.
Daniel, Hannah, Ephraim and Irene
gently spurred the oxen with their goads.
Sarah, Obie and the baby, Walter,
wedged between the boxes and the bales.
The trip was uneventful till they ferried
across the Hudson River at Newburgh Bay,
when, fearing they would surely drown, the children
clung to each other, wailing in dismay.
They met up with the Tuttles one day later—
Rachel’s cousin Ichabod and his wife,
Eliza, five months pregnant with their first.
The Minisink, although not much improved
and barely wide enough for them to pass,
was even, high and dry, and more direct
than other paths that led through swamps and bogs.
So, when they made their camp upon Cobb’s Mountain,
the Munsons and the Tuttles slept beneath
the full Corn Planting Moon in perigee.
Coming soon - PART TWO, CHAPTER SIX
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