That High Lonesome Sound

Rita Mae Reese

There’s a music that keeps us
believing in each other
–church songs, mine songs, farm songs–
every day another dam breaking,
another mountain sliding down
and every day our hands digging out
love and home and a dignity that burns
hotter than any lump of coal ever dreamed,
casting a warmth and a light 
that’s right this minute 
leading someone else home.