I'm not much into poetry, but I am into appreciating it when the message is conveyed in a way that is difficult to top. My apologies for not knowing the author of this bit of philosophy. It comes from a collection of things to keep and reflect on occasionally. Though dated, it is well worth the read.

A farmer is a man
Who works out in the sun,
Wearing out two pairs of britches,
Growing cotton enough for one.

He milks his cows or slops his hogs,
Or feeds his steers too fat.
He starts each year with nothin'
And loses more of that.

At planting time or harvest,
Checking weather by his nose,
What isn't lost to drought or flood,
Is eaten by the crows.

Gamblin' is illegal,
Whether racing horses or a hound,
But day by day he'll get away,
With gambling on the ground.

A boxcar full of fertilizer,
Herbicide and seed.
Couldn't make the best corn plant
Out grow the poorest weed.

The horses have the colic,
He buys a sterile bull.
A coyote got the last chicken,
His ewes lost all their wool.

But the only lines you'll see
Upon his wrinkled face,
Are those that are caused from grinnin'
At the whole danged human race.

The smartest man would starve
Out on the family farm,
But his wife thinks he's a genius,
It doesn't do much harm.

The kids all help their papa
Through the 'work for nothing' stage,
Then they all drive 50 miles to church,
To hear a sermon on minimum wage.

Heaven help the family
That lives off the fat of the land.
Heaven help the nation
That doesn't understand.