Ron's Poem

Dirt Poor

Her family lived barely dirt poor
on a farm without water or seed
and too many mouths to feed
till scattered like winded spore.

Life was difficult every day.
A mother with hardened heart
of despair drove them to part,
sent them seeking another way.

Marriage was Mom's only chance
she thought it must be better,
until child became a new fetter
to her imagined life of romance.

Movies were her main consolation,
fervently she wanted to live in town.
Each day she sank ever down
in self pity chained to rural isolation.

She could never be mother or wife.
When young I wanted her there,
I wanted to think she really did care,
now I understand her wanted life.

in my older age
I know she had to leave
Now, I no longer grieve,
for me it was better.

Ronald Kuykendall

Jan's Poem

PARTING

Paper memories
black and white ghosts
frozen moments
from the past
fading images
pale reflections
haunt me, torment me
your smiling face
I hold so dear
fading away

lines on paper
like butterfly wings
dance and skip
across the linen
threads of emotions
your soft voice
in the fading ink
haunts me, torments me
words so dear
fading away

How could I have known
it wouldn't last

Janice Kuykendall

Ron's Poem

Samuel B. F. Kuykendall
1833-1913
Union Cavalry 1863-1865

In the 19th century cotton
produced by Southern slaves
was America's largest export.
Our great-grandfather Sam
was the son of a slave trader.
Sam grew up hating slavery.
When the Civil War started
he left home to join the
Union First Texas Cavalry
whose mission was to divide
the South at the Mississippi,
thus preventing supplies from
Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
After the war Sam returned
home but was unwelcome.
He married his sweetheart
Anna and they moved to Mexico
where Anna died of influenza.
With two small children Sam
moved to Johnson City Texas.
He bought a farm next to
Texas State Representative
Sam E. Johnson Jr., father of
President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Though of differing ages and
ideas, he and Sam Johnson often
discussed the Civil War, government,
and the plight of the American Negro.
Influence from these discussions
between Sam Johnson and
Sam Kuykendall may have
influenced the future
President LBJ who signed
the 1964 Civil Rights Act
and the war on poverty.

Ronald Kuykendall

Jan's Poem

GRAY DAWN

In the half light hours
between day and night
my mind travels the back roads
of my memory
visiting dusty corners,
moving
down rusty roads
to half-forgotten places,
half-dreaming
it stops at an
overgrown path
where flowers grow
among the weeds.
out of the dimness
my mother appears
an apparition in white
a phantom
from a long-ago childhood
where she was only
wishful thinking.
she is silent and still
I call to her
she turns away
I try to hold on
as the day creeps
slowly in
cutting away
the edge of night
then
in the cold morning light
I remember

Janice Kuykendall