Cotton Seed Hulls (from Boyhood Tales)

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

0 posted 2000-08-14 03:33 AM

Cotton Seed Hulls
(from Boyhood Tales)

King on the Mountain,
a show-off game,
of strength,
agility,
sheer good luck,
and when girls
were around,
a war
for supremacy,
winner take all;
a show-off game,
we played
at the Cotton Gin.

The Cotton Gin
where wagon loads
of fresh picked bolls
were brought,
separated into
cotton and hulls;
the hulls being spit
down a long tube
from the gin
to a twenty-foot deep
humongous pit,
where they formed
an enormous pile,
thirty feet high;
poky,
itchy,
mattress-like
in it's softness;
the mountain.

The mountain,
with it's cut-away,
cliff like face
on the side where they
scooped it away,
put it in trucks,
and hauled it
to who knows where;
the face we called
Cotton Seed Cliff.

Cotton Seed Cliff,
a vertical drop
of eighteen feet,
more fun
than dangerous,
because of the
cushion-like bounce
of the cotton seed hulls
when we fell down it's face;
but dangerous it was,
when the face
collapsed,
burying you
in it's sticky embrace.

It's sticky embrace
had covered me all
that day I'll never forget,
when the whole cliff wall
buried me in it's fall;
and when I saw light
as the hulls
were cleared away,
my heart
skipped a beat,
my soul took a leap,
at the face I saw
that day.

The face I saw
that day…
a memory
that's never
gone away;
soulful eyes,
dimpled cheeks,
short brown hair,
whimsical smile,
her hand
offered my way…
I was ten years old,
way back then,
King Of The Mountain
at the
Cotton Gin.

w. james beard, jr.

Sunnyone
Member Ascendant

since 2000-07-06

Posts 5334
Staffordshire, England

1 posted 2000-08-14 07:38 AM

Hi jwesley...

           This was such fun!!! Thank you
        for letting me take a peek into
        your childhood!! What a lot of fun
        that must have been.....with me it
        was jumping out of the barn window
        into a hay wagon!!
                Love these memories....

Today is a gift....
That is why they call it
'the Present'!

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

2 posted 2000-08-14 11:27 AM

Thanks Sunny1, and you're certainly right about fun.

jwesley

Meadowmuse
Member Elite

since 1999-12-27

Posts 3263

3 posted 2000-08-14 11:32 AM

"poky,
itchy,
mattress-like
in it's softness;
the mountain."

Your description here is so clear. I enjoyed how you took care with the details of this piece.

~ Claire

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?......Henry David Thoreau

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.