Raised In Central Florida Poem by Robert Edgar Burns

Born and raised in west central Florida
The oldest of five total kids,
On Valentine's Day 1953,
Dunedin is where I did live.

It is Sister City to Sterling Scotland.
And I am of Scottish descent.
I was named for Scottish poet Robert Burns.
The Bard's rhyme in me won't relent.

My daddy was a traveling carpenter.
Prefab houses were new in his time.
We moved into poor housing frequently,
One hundred moves haunt this memory of mine.

And while in my teens dad bought a farm.
I walked behind a horse pulling a plow.
In between neighboring orange groves.
My muscles from hard work did show.

Our chickens gave fresh eggs for breakfast.
The pigs gave us bacon and ham.
The skunks and the squirrels gave us trouble,
And my Collie herded cows on the lam.

In the evening we worked as pro roofers,
My brother, my father and me.
I handled the tar pot and heavy tar kegs,
For I was the strongest of all three.

I learned of hard work from my daddy.
I never heard him make a peep,
Of discontent when a job got the hardest,
But it makes me now walk in my sleep.