(Permian Basin, West Texas)
Uncle Pedro boasted
that he earned his living
off rotten dinosaurs.
He lamented that the rigs
had changed so much
since he worked them,
needing far fewer men
than they used to.
Decades of exposure
to the noise of spinning,
grinding steel left him
almost deaf. Just before
he had to stop working,
a rig accident
took half his right
index finger. Soon as
the swelling shrank,
he adorned the stub
with a big turquoise
ring he brandished
like a badge.
Larry D. Thomas: I am a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and served as the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate. I have published several collections of poetry, including As If Light Actually Matters: New & Selected Poems (Texas Review Press, Member, Texas A&M University Press Consortium). Among the journals in which my poetry has recently appeared are Callaloo, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Review Americana, Louisiana Literature, and San Pedro River Review. larrydthomas.com.
A Quiet Courage 