growing up poor but not in spirit
simple ways for a rural family of five
our nearest neighbor was a mile away
our farm was second generation of tennents

chickens in the cage....pigs in the pen
my dog would chase the cows
all over our 60 acres spread
and I would play next to our barn
where I would find
my grandmothers mother's headstone
among the weeds

my grandmother first came to this land
as a small girl riding in a covered wagon
from the hills of Arkansas she rode
to the open red dirt land called Oklahoma

working in the Frates grove
picking fruit in the lil country orchid
she toiled away...her and her two sisters
it was there her father would find
his second wife so young and fine

near the land she arrived so young
would she buy a parcel from her dead husbands pension
it was there my father was born
and it was where my brother and sister and I would call home

01/29/2007

Posted on 01/29/2007
Copyright © 2024 Mark Maxey