Out of the Dust

This section summarizes Poem 85: “Blankets of Black,” Poem 86: “The Visit,” Poem 87: “Freak Show,” Poem 88: “Help from Uncle Sam,” Poem 89: “Let Down,” Poem 90: “Hope,” Poem 91: “The Rain’s Gift,” Poem 92: “Hope Smothered,” Poem 93: “Sunday Afternoon at the Amarillo Hotel,” Poem 94: “Baby,” and Poem 95: “Old Bones.”

Three clear days revive everyone in April—no wind, no dust, and warm sunshine. Everyone wants to be outside. Billie Jo does not want to go to the funeral of Grandma Lucas, but Daddy insists. A terrible dust storm hits when they are only six miles from town. They leave the truck and run for the only house they see. Everyone in the funeral procession runs there too, and they wait out the storm together. Billie Jo is grateful for the people who shelter them and for the others who gather there. This storm is bad enough to crush their spirits, but fellowship prevents that. Back home dust fills the house in mountains and drifts. Billie Jo begins to shovel it out. Mad Dog comes to check on Billie Jo and her father; he tells her he has the chance to sing on the radio in Amarillo. He stays longer than he expected, then runs home.

A Toronto Star photographer named James Kingsbury comes to take pictures of the dust conditions, and Billie Jo wonders how people will react to seeing them. Billie Jo’s father takes government aid to help pay for seed and feed for the farm animals, assured that no paybacks are necessary until a good harvest comes. In May, Billie Jo agrees to play piano for graduation at the school but cannot when the moment comes. She leaves the stage in silence. If her father would go to the doctor about his skin spots, she might ask about how to treat her hands, but he shows no signs of getting help.

Evidence of change finally occurs in “Hope” with rain that starts easy, priming the hard, dried soil over several days, then turns to a fierce and wonderfully abundant rainstorm. Within the month, grass returns. The dust comes back, though, and Billie Jo “can hardly make [herself] get started cleaning again” (181). She would apply for work to take her elsewhere with Civilian Conservation Corps, but she is “too young / and the wrong sex” (181).

Neighbors enjoy gathering and listening to Mad Dog sing on the radio from Amarillo. Everyone enjoys the music, but they also cheer his victory and success. Billie Jo tries to celebrate too, but her throat is tight as she thinks how Mad Dog can “go as far as he wants” (183). Someone abandons their baby on the church steps in Joyce City in May. Billie Jo immediately wants to try to adopt it, but Daddy says they have no chance without a mother. She finds the dimes Ma saved up from her playing on the road with Arley when she gathers Franklin’s clothes to donate. She thinks there is no hope of going to Panhandle A and M to learn music now due to her hands. She sits at the piano without touching it, imagining pieces of music for Franklin, for the abandoned baby, even for the Lindbergh baby in the news.

In the last poem, “Old Bones,” Billie Jo wants to go to see the unearthing of dinosaur bones found in Cimarron County. The idea of dinosaurs roaming the countryside so many years before gives her shivers and makes her feel like she should leave before becoming trapped like the dinosaur: “I ought to get out before my own / bones turn to stone” (188). Daddy considers it but decides against going.