West Texas Radio

Ok--this should probably be in some other collection of writings, but this is where I've decided to put it, so we'll all just have to do the best we can with that.

WEST TEXAS RADIO

West Texas Radio
It is not scintillating
It is not a tea-time
Chat

No night
at the opera
Ballet
It is not

It is hard-baked;
The dirt dried
On a tractor
Wheel

A ’76 Caprice Classic
The paint
Sun-Blasted
Off the hood

The searing heat
From the relentless
Sky
And the motor below

Etch the weariness
On the fatigued
Finish
So brilliant once

Now submissive
As are those
Whose lives
Are etched there

As if into the dirt
Itself
Citizens
Of the vastness

They get the worst
West Texas
The sun saves them
For last

And they avoid
Looking at
The sky
For their gaze

Will not be
Forgiven
Or rewarded
With rain

“Get in real soon,
You better
Jump on this
Deal

Else yore gonna
Be sorry
Seeds for plantin’
Early-season special

All this week
Tractor tires
Half-price on
Selected sizes

Tell Bill or Erma
You heard it on
West Texas
KAWW—Farm Country”

And I cry
Blinded by
The emotion
The other-worldly

Voices
That I cannot
Belong to
Not from

The same planet
A drive-through
Visitor
Alone

“Crop report next,
Right after this
Message
From Dale’s

West Texas Farm
Supply and Feeds
Where you
Always have a friend.”