Cowboys may ask forgiveness,
but never ask permission.
The house-movers had slid huge beams beneath
the floor joist after they used jacks to pry
our home off its foundation. Hauling with
a dirt-filled dump truck, a long chain would try
and pull the house still filled with chairs and beds
and dishes, glasses, breakfast cereal,
to our new farm ten miles down country roads.
…
Our house arrived intact, but neighbors still
will tell of cowboy-movers cutting trees
and posts of mail boxes with their chainsaw,
then handing out one hundred dollar bills
to angry folks before they called the Law.
…
The foreman said, “We never ask before
we move a house for someone might say no…”
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL
