Blankets of Black

1
Blankets of Black
2

• On the first clear day
• We staggered out of
• our caves of dust
• Into the sunlight,
• Turning our faces
• to the big blue sky

3

• On the second
• clear day
• we believed
• The worst was
• over at last.
• We flocked outside,
• traded in town,
• going to stores
• and coming out only to find the air still clear
  and gentle,
• Grateful for each easy breath.

4

• On the third clear day
• summer came in April
• and the churches opened their arms
• to all comers and all comers came.
• After church, folks headed for
• picnics,car trips.
• No one could stay inside.

5

• I was sulking
• in the truck
• beside my Father
• when heavens shadow
• crept across the plains, a black cloud,big
  and silent as Montana
• Boiling on the horizon and barreling
  toward us.

6

• We watched as the storm swallowed the light.
  
• The sky turned from blue
• to black,
• night descended in an instant
• and the dust was on us.

7

• My father groped
• for my hand,
• pulled me away
• from the truck.
• We ran.
• A blind pitching
• toward the shelter of a
• small house,
• almost invisible,
• our hands tight together,
• running toward the ghostly door.

8

• Not just me and my father,
• But the entire funeral procession,
• And one after another,
• We tumbled inside, gasping,
• Our lungs burning for want of air.

9

• The walls
• shook in the howling wind.
• We helped tack up sheets on the windows and doors
  to keep
• the dust down.

10

• If it hadnt been for the company,
• This storm would have broken us completely,
• Broken us more thoroughly than the plow
• had broken
• the Oklahoma sod.
• More thoroughly
• Than my burns.

11

• When we got back home,
• We found the barn half covered in dunes,
• I couldnt tell which rise of dust was Ma
• and Franklins grave.
• Dust lay two feet deep in ripply waves
• Across the parlor floor

12

• While I
• started
• to shovel,
• my father
• went out
• to the barn.
• He came back,
• when I asked, he said the animals werent
  good,and the tractor was dusted out,

13

• and I said. Its a wonder
• the truck got us home.
• I should have held my tongue.
• When he tried starting the truck again,
• it wouldnt turn over.

14

• April 1935