13 AND BUSTED IN ARKANSAS

one of my father's stories from his childhood in the south

13 AND BUSTED IN ARKANSAS

on his 13th birthday
grandma rose sent my dad  to his uncle fred’s place
just over the mississippi line in arkansas
to get some chickens,
a rooster n two hens...

on foot the trip would take several days,
dad left home at dawn with a bedroll and a bundle
packed with biscuits, cheese, and some pork from the smokehouse
along with 3 gunny sacks to carry the chickens home

he was nearly halfway back home,
just short of the state line,
sitting on a log with his tired bare feet in a cold water creek
when the arkansas sheriff found him...

since he was traveling with a rucksack and no id
the sheriff decided he was a vagrant,
a no account hobo, a thief.
and a danger to the local society...

dad was sentenced
to an arkansas road gang
where he spent six months building roads
from dawn to settin' sun
guarded by a tobacco spittin’ man ridin’ a mule an holdin’ a gun...

one day he slipped away through the bushes
where he had stopped to pee
and home he did run
where he was welcomed
with a kiss n' a hug,
n' then a switchin’ for the loss of the chickens...

Reviews

[daninstockholm]

WOW What a story!! I'll give this a proper review a little later, but do know how much I like it! If you look at my blog, www.daninstockholm.wordpress.com, then you'll see how much civil rights has meant to me all these years. More later, thanks for this!! Very well told!!