The Windmill Man

He blots out the sun
as though it were a stain
on his sweat-sodden shirt;
a hand raised to the sky.
And the whispery fingers of the
wheat grass pull him in from where he lay.
Perhaps if he lies here long enough,
they'll take him away,
dragging him through the surface of the earth
until he arrives in some strange land,
as far from here as he can imagine.
Away from this place where the wheat fields
perform their daily ballet and the
blue of the sky is as dull and dusty as
the old man who's stories never cease
to roll from his dry lips.

The routine. He hurls his hoe at
the dirt each day, until his arms ache--
throbbing as though they each had
a heart of their own.
The warm sweat flows from his hairline
like an open wound.
There is no sound, save for his ragged breath
and the murmurs of the yellow sea around him.
He's never been to the seaside,
but he yearns for it as he listens to the
rhythmic sighs of the wind weaving through the grass.

He sees the windmill that is
fastened to the flat skyline, and he decides that
it makes for poor company.
It moves freely, spinning all day.
But in the end, it is rooted to its spot--
like the tree that it once was--where it will
remain until it wastes away;
flesh decomposed, leaving behind only the bare bones.
He, like the old wooden structure,
is bound to this nearly forgotten place.
Perhaps if he lies here long enough,
he will waste away too.

You get my 300th review

I think this is a lovely lovely poem, Hols, so I'm going to pick at a small relatively insignificant (but still significant) matter. While your description is beautiful, I'm not feeling it quite yet. I think this is because you have a lot of articles ('the', 'that', etc (I think they're articles but I'm not really sure what to call them)). They're weighting down the poem, in my opinion

Remove a lot of the unnecessary little words (the ones that are necessary in fiction, but not poetry), and concentrate enhancing the description.

For examples:

The routine. He hurls his hoe at
the dirt each day, until his arms ache--

You don't even need the first two words, because 'each day' does that for you; I think emphasising that it is a routine, if you want to, could be done better than simply stating it. (To keep the rhythm I'd put a line break after 'day' instead of 'at'.) By the way, I love the little alliteration of these lines-- dirt/day, hurls/hoe, arms/ache. Especially the hard d's and h's because they help me to hear the sound of the hoe on the ground. This is what I mean when I say feeling descriptions

but he yearns for it as he listens to the
rhythmic sighs of the wind weaving through the grass.

Here, I think it might be cool if there were more 'w' sounds, to try and mimic the sound of the sighs. 'Grass' could be replaced with 'wheat' or something else to enhance the feeling.

fastened to the flat skyline, and he decides that
it makes for poor company.

I really hate the bit after the comma in the first line. It just seems gross and hanging there like an extraneous and useless limb. What about 'he sees the windmill that is/fastened to the flat skyline, and/it makes for poor company'? That way it's more concise, you've cut out a 'that', and it's about the same effect. Similarly:

It moves freely, spinning all day.

'it makes for poor company,/moving freely, spinning all day' The repetition of 'it's in two lines is kind of blech.

So, hopefully this is enough for you to see what I mean, and I ramble sometimes so major apologies if this doesn't make much sense! My point, basically, is to use an editing eye. One of the most valuable skills when writing poetry is to be able to cut out superfluous words without losing meaning, and I think there is room to do that here.

Otherwise, a lovely lovely poem and a perfect title. I especially adore the last lines; it ties the whole rest of the poem together and makes your point crystal clear.

<3