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Open Poetry #49
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JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana

0 posted 2014-03-08 07:28 AM


    

in the direst of straits
of the very most awful of the season
Black Tuesday. October 29, 1929
money reduced to nothing
people were ruined overnight
many climbed the tallest building
leapt to their deaths
overcome with hopeless grief
people on the move
walking town to town
looking for work
anything would do
signs at the edges of towns saying
Keep walking, we can’t feed our own.
add to this horrible time
The Dust Bowl
added misery on top of misery
the okies and the arkies, et al
piled everything they owned in their Model T’s
exodus to California
but California was no longer the
land of milk and honey
she was sick with fever and heartache
at what had been lost
her farms, her lands
by the time the okies made it to the Cuyamaca Mountains
the snow came
and continued for three days
when the thaw came next spring
they found them
his skeleton arms were wrapped
abound her legs
pressing them to his own skeleton chest
he had given her the warmth from himself
until at last they were both at peace

©March 3, 2014 / Jerry Pat Bolton



~*~ There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. ~*~

© Copyright 2014 Jerry Pat Bolton - All Rights Reserved
Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere
1 posted 2014-03-08 07:34 AM


Glad my people survived it and kept the farm! I know I'm blessed.

Lori

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
2 posted 2014-03-08 07:37 AM


Yes, there were success stories among the bad ones.

~*~ There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. ~*~

EmmaRose
Senior Member
since 2011-03-02
Posts 1376
Midwest
3 posted 2014-03-08 10:00 AM


you speak of harsh times, which are not that far from today's
well written historical and period piece

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
4 posted 2014-03-08 10:09 AM


You are right, Emma, we are due I would say. Thank you.

~*~ There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. ~*~

Jack Napes
Member
since 2014-02-22
Posts 290
Phaedra's Womb
5 posted 2014-03-08 10:28 AM


Watching the Ken Burns documentary 'Dust Bowl' presents an exceptional view of what you mention JerryPat2.

Touch, but don't look

JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
6 posted 2014-03-08 10:29 AM


Thanks Jack.

~*~ There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. ~*~

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California
7 posted 2014-03-08 06:19 PM


My parents made it through the depression. My dad was creative. He was a bootlegger, caught rattle snakes, could grow a garden just about anywhere and finally worked for the WPA when they left Oklahoma and road a freight train to Tennessee. Most of his family had moved to the Northwest and escaped the worst of it.
JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
8 posted 2014-03-08 06:31 PM


Yeah, my parents survived it also, Ida. He drove a truck for seventy-five cents a day I was told, and glad to get it. Thank you for stopping by.

~*~ There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab center that said 'Keep off the Grass'. ~*~

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