Great Depression Tragedy

Kinfolk edged closer
around the potbelly stove
The blackjack fire blazed
more fiercely red
and Cousin Billy
told us stories too sad to hear
all true

"Been on the bum"
he said soberly
"riding the rails
hard out there
Leastways I made it home
Some didn't make it back
Lordy, have mercy!

"Up there on the Great Divide
in my same boxcar
we had a nice young couple
a pretty girl
and her husband

"I remember how they
looked up at the high mountains
and down at the rushing water
then they called each other's names
locked their arms around each other
and leaped from the train"

Coda: True

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.