Muddy Water Veins

Muddy water runs in my veins

from Arkansas generations who knew

more dirt than gold, a belly full of hunger,

and moonshine bottled in glass.

The dustbowl didn’t bring their

Grapes of Wrath…It was revenuers

with their nostrils to the ground

sniffing out the family business.

With handcuff incentive they piled

possessions and children on trucks

and took a midnight flight to safer ground

across the border into Missouri.

Two families- one flight - kept them

living together in getting by until

circumstances grew a new limb

by joining my parents as husband and wife.

My name sits on a muddy water tree

where death came sooner than later,

poor did what it did to survive, and

moving on never escaped its roots.

©Susie Clevenger 2014

Kay over at Real Toads prompted us to write a ballad. 

Kay's Challenge