Super Bloom

Storm clouds came up from Mexicali

Cast shadows on the Salton Sea

Here with my father’s family had settled

From Arkansas to the Coachella valley

Like the Grapes of Wrath in the ‘70s

My grandfather packed dates

Near the polo grounds

And he sometimes mowed people’s lawns

Grandma was a housekeeper in Palm Springs

Or the Bermuda Dunes country club

One summer went to stay with cousins in Indio

They were fleeing poverty in Arkansas

My uncle was a hellfire Baptist minister

My cousin Norma Jean that's her name she was sweet

But her twin brothers trouble for the law

The twins stole a car

And they took me to watch them

Burn it by the aqueduct

Then they robbed the neighbor’s house

I was frightened and ran away.

Never told my grandfather what they’d done

Dark haired Mary in the eighth grade

Her mother was from Mexico

Her father was a soldier

And she asked me to the dance

Sat in the bleachers just held hands

One slow dance in at the end

It rained and snowed a lot that winter

In the spring came a Super Bloom

The desert was a sea of purple and orange flowers

From Cabazon on down to Mexico