Beneath the branches up high
you can see the sharpness
of these thorn trees
Halloween worthy
stretching their sparse shade
over puny Bermuda grass
in a place where both
cactus and roses bloom.
Desert heat
and floods
wheel of fortune weather
where men farm
hell bent and undaunted
pulling out of this land
not just trees of thorns
but wheat, cotton, corn.
fighting Mother Nature
in her formidable, fancy robes.
Farm boys jump from
their beds at midnight
running into fields
flooding with irrigation
broken pipes
and broken dreams.
2 am they hit the fields again
harvesting in colder air
the cotton gleaming in tractor light
moon shining bright
the machine moving like a submarine
emerging into a sea
of white froth.
Cotton so light
to float hope
glowing white on white
and the thorn trees
shift condescendingly in the breeze
future cotton may fail
but the trees will stand
their native ground.
In the battle between man and nature, nature might be temporarily outsmarted, but wins in the end. I love the native desert plants sharing space with crops and roses. Fav line: “cotton so white / to float hope.” Beautiful descriptions, Lana. 🙂
Thanks so much, Joan. Nature does tend to win here. There is a line from a country band that I think sums it up, “People bet their lives on grain…” I hope you are having a lovely, long weekend 🙂
Cotton is all harvested here and our Texas snow is done.
That’s it, a good Texas snow…your part of the state gets more rain on average than ours…
Sounds like quite a task…all this fighting nature. May be best to let it be?
Farming is tough business here, especially in this portion of Texas, but overall Texas is usually in the top three producers for the entire country. Luckily this year has been good since the drought busted. My grandfather was a farmer…..
Oh, you must be pretty knowledgable then! Good thing about the drought. We’re still pretty dry. Seems like a permanent state.
Beautiful poem, Lana. I love the contrast you create between the thorns and cotton, and the tough farmers who labor to bring crops to bear.
Thank you, Diana. I was thinking of a tree that grew in my grandmother’s back yard and the local crops around there. I don’t know what the tree’s official name is…
This is really great – I love your descriptions of the farmers’ struggles.
Thank you. In the area of Texas that I live in, the climate sometimes swings from one wild extreme to the other. Farming is definitely a challenge, but the rest of us are lucky that people still work hard at it.
I think your farmers have it a whole lot harder than ours. Since the glacier spread across the Midwest ages ago, our soils are pretty ideal for growing. Of course, everything depends on Mother Nature’s cooperation, but I think they even have ways of outsmarting her!!
I think you are right, Debbie. East and South Texas has a better harvest record than the rest of the State, I guess Texas is one of the top producers simply due to the size of the state. Mother Nature has the final say 🙂
Reblogged this on John Cowgill's Literature Site and commented:
By the lovely L.T. Garvin.
Thanks again, John!
You are very graciously welcome again, L.T.
So nice love the poem !! Check out my blog post Halloween is more than just costumes!
http://wp.me/p32gxr-gm
Thank you! I will check it out, I adore Halloween.
Anytime at all. Look forward to reading more of your posts.