Black & White

We sit drinking coffee
in the old cafe
It had been here before
I was born

My brother and I
had a good life on the farm
Our father made a living
Our mother was a wonderful lady
She had made our home warm
Now they’re both dead
The family farm had been sold
to the corporate bastards
We had driven through mid America
just to find a town that was black & white

It had dried up and blown away
The only thing left was the cafe,
the bus station and a motel
Everything was boarded up
including the church we attended
Our folks were buried in the old cemetery
Our father had just passed a few weeks back

I always wished for a sister
as my mother had wanted a daughter
She would have known what to do
with the things left behind
But I suppose my bro and I would
take them home to our wives
My wife had given birth to two daughters
So I guess now I could have some sisters
Although it wouldn’t be the same

I was a diesel mechanic in the big city
60 miles up the freeway
My brother was a lawyer at a big firm
He and his wife hadn’t had any children yet
Still my mother hadn’t got to see my kids
My father did and he was so happy
He said well Mama got her daughters
and she’s smiling looking down
Five years later he died
He’d lost his livelihood on the farm
like all the small farmers had
so he died with a broken heart

I looked out the cafe window
and thought it would have been so nice
to have raised my family here on the farm
but it wasn’t meant to be
The world had become black & white
The color in my own life was my family
I hoped they would find happiness
in this world which can lose its color

©Dale Clark