Author Archives: John

Exeter, California mural painted by Morgan McCall and Mitchell-Veyna in 1996

            He ain't got no loan
            Cant grow no corn
            He ain't got no loan
	         - Levon Helm (“Poor Old Dirt Farmer”)

A cattlemen’s get-together,
a fund-raising dinner—awards 
and not-so-silent auctions
at the end of summer
before the calves come,

to rub shoulders with the neighbors
who’ve gotten older
or by surprise disappeared 
altogether

like the uneven ground shrinking
for grazing cattle
and our flat ground sinking
with too much pumping
on the same old cow.

The banks are nervous
with farm ground worth 
half of what it was
without water
to plant and raise a crop 
to feed us
and pay the growing costs
(plus taxes and interest)

and threaten to foreclose 
on homesteads with row crops
or orchards in piles 
that have become bare ground
to develop, for speculators
to make small fortunes
for corporate investors.

Mom and Pop
have moved to town,
following the kids
the land couldn’t support— 

but it’ll be so much easier
for everyone to shop 
for third world groceries
at the Wall Street outlets.