78. To the Stars Through Difficulty: Miguel M. Morales

Brown furrowed faces follow the assiduous sun like Kansas sunflowers.

Tender hearts tend the land that belonged to pioneering homesteaders.

Corporate farms hire migrant children who learn to master machetes

rather than their multiplication tables — or their destinies.

Meat-packing plants drain the life and blood from cattle and men

leaving them as carcasses to be devoured, bones discarded.

Yet, grace and absolution come in attentive smiles, shared stories,

and other gifts from the fields.

Calloused hands pray, as did those of the brave pioneers,

that their seedlings will harvest the American Dream.