Thursday, May 19, 2022

“Dust to Dust”

Guest post by Frederick Manfred Simon.

August 15, 2017

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19
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On a still warmed sunsetting August day, suspended in the melted margarine sky sediment stirred up by combines harvesting wheat turns to ever so slightly drifting dust cloaking a westbound Eastern Washington Gateway Scoot Train taking the rise just west of Hite where, diesels grumbling, the head-end bids good evening to the “Three Sisters,” then two long, one short, one long for Stroup Road. The Sisters? Three out-of-place trees. In the middle of nowhere but wheatland: as far as the eye can reach. And those in-tow 4750 CH’s? They’ll find their way to Reardan – the next station – and “spots” on down the line where they’ll fill with the very harvest collected by sweat-faced men and their colossal combines.


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