Vox Populi
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karla k. morton: The Next Generation
Not knowing the spring of 1980
would be the worst drought
in the history of Texas,
my father sod an entire acre.
It was my job to water.
Every day, hose in hand,
I stood in those young sprouts
barefoot,
69 days over 100 degrees
browning my skin through my shirt.
I put the hose on my head,
letting water coil down my body—
a human rain-chain
into each little square tuft.
Four hours a day I watered,
our well, deep and new.
I remember that summer now,
the record waiting to be broken,
the only green things left:
sweet potato vine,
aloe vera, and mint—
little pockets of earth still giving back,
remembering
a girl who labored
for the common grass—
the way she praised each running root,
her toes embracing
those tiny shoots of green.
~~~~
Copyright 2023 karla k. morton from Turbulence & Fluids (Madville, 2023)
karla k. morton is a professional speaker, award-winning author, photographer, the 2010 Texas Poet Laureate, and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
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karla has a gift for tapping into sensuous memories.
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Thanks to all who inspired, wrote, and posted this poem for us.
She (Karla) watered herself first, and then the water fell into the sod. The proper order for survival, as they say on airliners. Beauty flows down the poem too, even in the midst of tough times for the earth. A human rain chain to follow top to bottom. –sweetness and connections–
It’s great to see the growing ecopoetics between humans and other lifestyles. (There is also an unspoken aspect to the poem, sodding around its edges).
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Yes, as an editor, I’m seeing a lot of nature poems coming my way. Perhaps people are more aware of our tenuous position on this planet.
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I love it when I feel a poem, my feet in the soil, holding the hose. The scent of water in dry air.
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The poem is very sensual.
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