Literary Mentor

Cousin Truman
had finished one year at Tulsa U
when he came to California
on a working vacation

To tell the truth
he picked very few grapes
That part didn't matter:

He filled the hours
between hot sandy rows
with stories
that lit my teen-age mind

"Saint X"
he declared one day
"What a writer
what a life he led
flying the mail between
Dakar and Algiers
in those flimsy crates"
and he quoted from
Wind Sand and Stars

Remembering the book
he had become emotionally lost
in the Sahara Desert
and told me dreamily

"Cousin you're a girl
but you have to read this stuff
for yourself
try to broaden your mind"

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.