The drainage ditch is four feet wide

The drainage ditch is four feet wide.

I used to clear it in a stride

and land upon the other side

with nothing on my knees.

The soles of my boots

hit the slope of the bank.

I slid back into the weeds.

The mud on my cuff

is dark and wet.

These trousers cost a week's pay.

I am standing in the muck.

The ground is further away

than it was in the summer of '98.