Waves
Waves
Something I’ve lately noticed,
And it kind of makes me sore,
Folks out in the country,
Don’t seem to wave much anymore.
Now, I know what you might be thinking,
Sure, it could be they just don’t wave at me,
But I’ve paid attention riding with others,
And waves are now a rarity.
Has the country lost the kindness,
That it used to have?
If so can we fix it?
Is there a balm or salve?
Old pickups in passing,
One finger raised you’d see,
Of course you might get the whole hand wave,
From friends or family.
When passing folks a workin’,
In the garden or the yard,
They would most always wave at you,
And show you some regard.
Then you would return the favor,
To let them know you cared,
Perhaps to let them know you sympathized,
And the feeling at least, was shared.
Is it just the world we live in?
Is the rat race now too fast?
Could it be common curtesy,
Is now part of the past?
I hope that ain’t the case, sir.
I hope it just ain’t so,
But I have to say I miss the friendly place,
That I used to know.
4 thoughts on "Waves"
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This hit me hard. I love reading your work. I am a multiurbanite who moved to the country a few years back for medical reasons. I was told, upon mentioning to someone here how my neighbors had not answered their doors or been in touch when I had made custom holiday giftboxes for each with invitations to my home, phone and address, that “Folks in the country like to be left alone. If you want to know your neighbors that’s when you move into the city.” That was so backward to the past or to my experience that it made me sad. Still does. And still alone. I’ve finally unplugged my phone for a year, tired of waiting for calls that never come, for decades, and it feels better. But I still wave, and I still check when anyone is working on their car, to see if they need anything. Thanks for sharing such a lovely tribute to the waves.
Reading your comment made my eyes a little wet. I’m sorry that folks haven’t been as they once were. I’m not sure where or when it all changed but it has. I wrote this after a trip to the feed store and I came up with the idea of this poem on the drive. I made a point of waving (the one finger pickup steering wheel wave) to every vehicle I passed.
thanks for giving us ideas about how to start rebuilding
I’ve noticed this as well! No one is neighborly at all anymore! Even on our street, we have one neighbor that we really even talk to on the regular. One or two that wave back to us. Most people are in too big of a hurry or they just don’t want to speak, I guess?