Caroling Dusk/November Cotton Flower
For other versions of this work, see November Cotton Flower.
NOVEMBER COTTON FLOWER
Boll-weevil’s coming, and the winter’s cold,Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old,And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow,Failed in its function as the autumn rake;Drouth fighting soil had caused the soil to takeAll water from the streams; dead birds were foundIn wells a hundred feet below the ground—Such was the season when the flower bloomed.Old folks were startled, and it soon assumedSignificance. Superstition sawSomething it had never seen before:Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,Beauty so sudden for that time of year.