Cottonfield Highway        by Bev Hawari

(Inspired in the summer of  2013 during the drive between Amarillo & NM)     

Singed railroad track edges.

Tumble down farmhouses,

Hollowed out souls but filled with story.

Ragweed ocean.

Rock houses with missing teeth.

Tiny dirt towns, walls bearing John Wayne clocks.

Sister’s Cafe but sis has gone broke.

Mesquites survive constant

Onslaught of drought, heat, fires, and farmers.

Red dirt hills.

Cows living out short lives,

Born, bred, then birthing calves.

Holocaust of a feed lot,

Reeking of ammonia and death.

 

Fruit stand with too many signs

And not enough fruit.

18-wheelers with stubborn drivers.

Radio tirades against progressive thought.

Cowboy churches with cheesy silhouettes,

Made by welders gone religious.

Were these little towns ever

New and vibrant?

What era birthed these locales?

Same broken down brick buildings.

I grew up with hard-scrabble folks like this.

When did they move so far away?