The Cotton Picker

She picks cotton beneath a sky  the color of  cornflowers. The sun turns her brown skin shiny and slick.

He rides out from the plantation house to a sea of white bobbing in a summer breeze. She watches him trot by.  Their eyes meet; only a second, but enough.

When the sun drops into the western sky, she leaves the fields; returns to the one room shack that is home.

She reaches to receive her baby from her mother’s arms.

“Yo’ daddy’s rich, and so be you one day.”

The baby gazes at her with eyes the color of cornflowers.

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Song lyrics which inspired this piece:

Summertime
And the livin’ is easy,
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high.
Oh yo’ daddy’s rich
An’ yo’ ma is good lookin’
So hush, little baby,
Don’t you cry.

One of these mornin’s,
You’s gonna rise up singin’
Then you’ll spread yo’ wings
An’ you’ll take the sky.
But till that mornin’,
There’s aint’ nothin’ can harm you
With your Daddy an’ Mummy
Standin’ by.