For Andrew's 19th birthday, I invited over friends and family and we ate haystacks, a barn cake, and instead of gifts, we presented Andrew with Farmer Fisher poetry. To say the least, it was a blast. We laughed, turned red, oohed and aaawed. I think it makes a fine tradition. Humiliating as it is, here is the one that I read, and one from last year too. (I need to put up the ultra creative poems that Christy K. and Kathilee D. wrote, among others too).
Farmer Boy
There once was a boy,
Whose tractor was his favorite toy.
He liked to drive it around the farm,
And fixing it outside of the big blue barn.
Tractors were not his only passion,
But building was also a great distraction.
He tinkered and toyed,
And when he succeeded, he was overjoyed!
This funny little Fisher, how he grew tall
It started to get hard to shop for jeans in the mall
“Those are your town jeans” his mother would say,
Then off he would wear them, to work and to play.
Farmer boy Andrew, boy did he have the smarts,
Teachers would tell him to memorize part,
(except for when he was to master fine arts)
Mister Smartie Pants would know the whole chart!
Don’t worry, we won’t hold it against him because he really is nice,
The only thing that I will give him, is this piece of advice:
Study for college, don’t stay out late
Don’t take too many girls out on a date
But most importantly, remember your Creator
The One who made your farm, fields and the garden grow greater.
-Emily Fisher
And this one is from last year, his 18th birthday:
A.K. Fisher: A Memoir
Once upon a time, there lived a boy.
This boy had hair as white as a blooming pear tree,
And had a face that turned red,
Almost like a maraschino cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.
This little boy grew and grew,
Almost like a little asparagus.
He spouted up, tall and skinny.
This boy lived an adventurous life.
He loved life, and especially his sister, Emily.
Sometimes these adventures would cause him to break a few limbs.
Almost like an Oklahoma Academy tree during an ice storm, they broke some limbs too.
So this boy grew and grew, taller than any asparagus.
His bones grew stronger too.
(But this is because Emily fed him yummy food to make him grow big and strong like her.)
This boy liked to do fun things,
Like hanging out with Emily.
All too soon, this little boy got old enough to go to high school,
Where they do absurd things, like going to Ireland.
But, throughout these absurd things that high school students do,
This little boy, err… teenager, was still pretty cool.
Even with pear-tree-blossom hair,
And maraschino-cherry red skin.
This little boy is pretty special.
Well, at least his sister Emily thinks so.
