The hard part is in spite of everything
if I had any boy court me,
it’d be Mad Dog Craddock.
But Mad Dog can have any girl.
Why would he want me?
I’m so restless.
My father asks what’s going on with me.
I storm up to my room,
leaving him alone
standing in the kitchen.
If Ma was here
she would come up and listen.
And then later,
she would curl beside my father,
and assure him that everything was all right,
and soothe him into his farmer’s sleep.
My father and I,
we can’t soothe each other.
I’m too young,
he’s too old,
and we don’t know how to talk anymore
if we ever did.
April 1935