a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Dirt Poor

Dirt poor and stuck
Looking hard to find the treat
Of living well
Just making ends meet

Mice and rocking chairs squeak
Anchored far from North
With a need to survey
Our condition to sally forth

A meeting's called
Report read
Watching your mate
What's in their head

"The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down"
"Take what you need and leave the rest"
We lost more than face
When they took the very best

Old wounds heal slowly
But slow healing is best
Your heart flutters
Civil War was/is a mess

We smile
As the pigeons fly
They're good to eat
We still get by.

Dirt Poor and stuck
We show no defeat
There's pride in our work
Every day of the week

The Sunday Whirl prompt along with Imaginary Garden With Real Toads combined using Challenge #2: "Dirt Farmer" Imagined by Marian 

Thank you both for tempting me to "push the envelope."

17 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

gotta be a hard 'assignment' but you pulled it off. :)

brudberg said...

To get by - pigeons can be a delicacy... A hard life well described.

Jae Rose said...

You can be poor of external riches and rich in internal ones..I feel they are the latter..nicely written commemorative and thoughtful

LindaG said...

Awesome job, Gail. :-D

And I learned something. Did not know pigeons are good to eat. Thanks for that.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sumana Roy said...

love this strength and the power of endurance that's so natural to them
.....great lines

MadSnapper said...

i think our world was a better place when dirt poor was the norm...i was raised dirt poor and it made me who i am.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the message in this. You are so right. Hard work and being satisfied with what you have, even if it is little, will get you by.

"Watching your mate
What's in their head"
Aren't we always doing that?! This is probably more frustrating than not having enough to eat.

Sandy Livesay said...

Great job and message :-)

Grace said...

A lot of hard work to make ends meet ~ Still there's pride in our work ~

Lynne said...

Pigeon . . . first for me . . .
Liked your poem word ditty . . . you did it!

Buttons Thoughts said...

Wow Gail I LOVE LOVE the way you can pull those challenges together so seemingly easy. Good one. Hug B

Jim said...

Mom was a city girl and wouldn't cook or eat the rabbits that Dad shot. Grandma did that and he would eat it at her place too. We were poor but we did have butchered animals for him to eat.

You did good with the words, they worked very well in the telling your story.
..

jp@A Green Ridge said...

Good job...poor in belongings but rich on heart...:)JP

Anonymous said...

Great job with the wordle and I love your last stanza.

Old Egg said...

How fortunate are those who are satisfied with their lot however meager. I really liked this piece.

LilliStJohn said...

Pigeon Pie - has nobody ever had this - Why, its a delicacy in some countries......but not in my kitchen. ha,ha I could not have pulled that one off Gail - Great job and well said.

Margaret said...

Everything southern music is - down to earth and real.

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