Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: The Red and Green Cement Truck

Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

Who knew cement trucks are our alter egos? With a combination of whimsy and seriousness that is characteristic of his work, today’s poem by the late Maine poet Richard Aldridge explains.

The Red and Green Cement Truck by Richard Aldridge

 rumbles by to where it’s going, while
    at an incline on the bed and
 at right angles to the wheels
           its mixer, shaped
    like a big cocktail shaker, turns
 upon an axis slowly, slowly,
        blending the cement and water.

          It is a feat as neat as
 pat-your-head-and-rub-your-belly
           but what I like still better is
               to see in it
         ourselves, we who do best
 to use our heads for mulling, mixing
          while with our feet
                we keep on trucking.

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Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2001 by Richard Aldridge. Reprinted from The Poems of Richard Aldridge, 2001, by permission of Josephine Haskell Aldridge. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.