Kudzu Farm

Artburt Farb, a local farmer, is always trying to find a way to get out of work. He tried to invent a lawnmower that you don't have to attend by tying one end of a rope to the mower and wrapping the other end around a tree so the mower would wind its way up to the tree and mow all the ground in that circle. It didn't work. The latest idea he had was to turn his farm into a kudzu producer. He did his research and found that in China kudzu is used as a drug. According to the article kudzu is good for a whole bunch of things, everything from alcoholism to high blood pressure. He hoped to cash in on that and have minimal effort involved in the process. And since kudzu runs wild when it is planted he hoped it would cover an old barn, an eyesore his wife had been on his case to tear down. If you go down to his place you can see the result of his yearlong work. There is kudzu everywhere. I came across Artburt having coffee at the cafe this morning and asked him is he had sold any of his kudzu. "Not yet," he said. "But I defy you to come out to my place and find that barn."

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle