November Dust

The wheat is growing

even though dust

blows in sometimes.

I walk with Daddy around the farm

and see that

the pond is holding its own,

it will keep Ma’s apple trees alive,

nourish her garden,

help the grass around it grow,

enough to lie in and dream

if I feel like it,

and stand in,

and wait for Mad Dog

when he comes past once a week

on his way from Amarillo,

where he works for the radio.

And as long as the

dust doesn’t crush

the winter wheat,

we’ll have something to show in the spring

for all Daddy’s hard work.
Not a lot, but more than last year.

November 1935