Whispers of the dust

a slithering snake the
winding dirt road which
at times had breached
its banks and bled
into the parched fields

two or more of those
slithering snakes had
chased and played with
children walking home
from their school day
down the dusty dirt road

at times when snakes
were all afforded for toys
of girls and boys and
slithering dirt roads bled
into the parched fields

times when the land
crashed upon the prairie's
shore in choking waves
of dust and dark surrender
ever to remember

times stuck to flypaper
in the minds of those now
sitting in rest home lobbies
or chucking seed to birds
within the courtyards

those who had seen
crops come and go, seen
locusts come and go, seen
neighbors mostly go with
and where ever the plundering
wind wanted to take them

those who still sing the
hymn of the western wind
in pasted porcelain hearts
that still hold their
parents' tearful fears and
whispers of the dust