Mountain Literature

by JD DeHart

Their song is sifted out

Golden flakes mixed with pyrite

How the baby died, how the food

Ran out, how the pests came

Ate up crops, how the house

Collapsed, the rains came, the bull

Ran away, yet somehow they survived

Always survived, and their proud

Mothers with shotguns cocked fought

Alongside the men, sometimes braver

Than their male counterparts and progeny.

JD DeHart is the editor of Mount Parable, teaches English and is a resident of Tennessee. His work has appeared in Steel Toe Review, Eye On Life and The Literary Yard.