As you may or may not have read, my first post on this blog was that of a poem relating to children living during the great depression. I find this topic exceedingly profound to write about, and there have been other absolutely perfect examples out there (A death in the family by James Agee-plus the gorgeous musical adaptation “Knoxville summer of 1915″ -I advise you look it up if you haven’t already). Recently I wrote an addendum to that poem. They are quite strange, and probably need a good deal more editing, but hopefully you”l like them as much as I do.
An added commentary: the word” petrichor” was not coined until the mid 60’s, so that part of my poem is historically incorrect…
Notes on the depression, Part One
How about mother wears her coat
as it drapes around her head, and
you wonder why this rain
can’t stop falling through the cracks of the sidewalk
and can’t mother let the rain become
older than her wrinkles
that are as smooth
as cream
so it melts dead
like frosted snow in the winter before the rain starts
and you just learned that the
smell of rain is plants making
oil of petrichor-
yes you get a whiff of petrichor and know it’s going to rain
and you say that to your freind and she’s so impressed,
oh how EVER know that sal, how EVER did-
but mother with her wrinkles
she doesn’t know the word for the smell of rain
or she doesn’t have and umbrella,
or just a coat or a piece of newspaper?
Golden Star Poetry 