Brother Al

A Story Poem With Commentary

(From Canva)

He was a little bit of a thing—
knee-high to a grasshopper
as pa used to say.
But his hair was the funnier sight—
white as the coverings
women wear in church.
Been that way since birth.
He didn’t seem to mind it, though,
until he met Ruthy Shonkwiler.

She was a big-breasted girl
with farmer’s hands.
Seems he fell in love
the moment he set eyes on her.
But as things have a way of happening
in this neck of the woods,
she had her heart set on Stephen,
old Samuel Yoder’s youngest,
tall as an oak with hair
the color of a bull Angus.

Now Alvin wasn’t one
to let obstacles get in his way.
He would stuff pages
out of an old Sears catalog
into his shoes to make himself taller
and he was always on the look out
for something to blacken his hair.