Workin' the Soles off my Shoes

My grandparents sharecropped. There are some frightening similarities to today.

a simple roof of tin
to hear a soothing dance of raindrops
yet keep them off our skin

fertile dirt like a woman’s womb
grows a white cotton crop
to pay for seed, sew clothes on a loom

chickens to lay eggs
one or two to bless us on holidays
money for shoes in place of rags

i look with wonder, night’s velvet sky
stars glitter with God’s beauty
and i ponder why

working from can to can’t
there is never time for rest
and always a gaping hole in my soul


By Kathie Stehr
June 5, 2010