OLD WATER HEATERS

a tale of old water heaters, Russ Coulter, his son, Fred, and jackrabbits...told with LOVE n LAUGHTER...jc

OLD WATER HEATERS

after my father in law passed
we held a family ceremony
to lay his ashes to rest at the feet of
some japanese trees of heaven shoots
we planted on his place outside winnemucca
when the ashes were laid to rest
and the gentle words spoken
it was time to search
for his papers and his first edition collection of robert service

to say his place was a mess
is truly an understatement,
russ never threw anything away
each old trailer house
every dilapidated shed
each dead car body
dating back to the first car he ever bought
every nook and cranny of his house
was crammed with stuff,
because i am an AIDS survivor
the family would not allow me inside
any of the mouse infested buildings
so i walked the property
and looked at his collection of junk
i have often heard it said that one man’s trash
is always a treasure to someone else
russ must have believed this
as he had collections of things long since outdated
and useless to anyone else
i counted 150 dead hot water heaters
what does one do with such things
a question i have pondered ever since
much to my surprise
i found the answer today
in the pages of “sea fighter” by james h cobb
the water tanks can be used as the hulls of contact mines
my husbands older brother has spent the years since russ’s passing
slowly cleaning out the junk
but the water heaters are still
a metal forest in the yard of the main house
when i told my brother in law, fred, about this possible use
the laughed long and hard and informed me
mr cobb had solved 2 problems
you see, the only thing more abundant than dead water heaters on russ’s place
are jackrabbits,
and fred really hates jackrabbits,
“right jc” fred said to me,
“i’ll dig a moat around the home place,
fill it with water and moor the mines,
that should wipe out every jack rabbit that tries to canoe across”...
and our shared laughter dances across the universe
even beyond the rim...