Those Odessa Days

(A remembrance of driving to the auction in Odessa, Missouri.) You’re bumpin’ down the highway in that ol’ pickup truck, Just a kid slowly tunin’ in a radio that plays— Headin’ for the stock auction with your dad and some luck— A part of history, back in those Odessa days. Dad will be biddin’ on some calves to haul way back home— He fancies doin’ more farmin’ like in younger days— He left the farm more than twenty years ago to roam, To find a town job and turn his back on farmin’ ways. But the land stays in your blood and someday you go back, If not in bone and muscle, at least within your mind— And you seek a part of youth—that’s just a natural fact, For you’re always on the outlook for what you’ll never find. You roll past green pastures and that churnin’ Mighty Mo, Count the silos, barns and the cattle as you drive past— Music fills the truck with songs of love and eatin’ crow— Cowboys, beer, bar fights and pickups—things that never last. That ol’ black pickup rattles and bucks just like a bronc, Its days, just like the horses, will soon come to an end— And as we reach the auction, my dad pulls up to honk: A ritual of completion for a son and now a friend. And when we head on home with those calves all loaded up, We’ll turn on that radio and sing in one sweet haze— For in just a few years, there will sit dad’s empty cup And there will just be memories of those Odessa days.