Down to the Dust (audio added) Options

[RC James]

audio take on the poem


https://soundcloud.com/rc-james-user841120068/z0000227


Ain’ nuthin’ left here ‘cep
six uv us an’ dry stahks ‘a corn.
We’re up ta movin west
soon as I sort out the T-Ford.
Jenny, ma wife, is set to
have anuther to make us seven.
Got some taters an’ dry beans
in the root cellah, but not much
beyon’ that, relyin’ on the Lord
to provide a way through the storm.
Ah’m proud of the chilren, they got
a strenth beyon’ anything I known.
When jedgement day comes it won’
be no surprise, we alreddy been jedged
an’ been found holdin’ the strenth
of spirits who can survive culamity
and beyond, way beyond what we thought
we could hold in that handful of dust.

[Heather]

This is what Salinger would sound like if he wrote poetry. I love that you wrote this in the vernacular, and yet there is so much rhyme present, beauty shining through the roughness. The ending was powerful and, in fact, I think the fact that to read this I had to voice the words in my head, made me experience the poem even more.
Well done.
Heather