Out of the Dust

This section summarizes Poem 61: “The President’s Ball,” Poem 62: “Lunch,” Poem 63: “Guests,” Poem 64: “Family School,” Poem 65: “Birth,” Poem 66: “Time to Go,” Poem 67: “Something Sweet from Moonshine,” Poem 68: “Dreams,” Poem 69: “The Competition,” Poem 70: “The Piano Player,” and Poem 71: “No Good.”

A year has passed since Billie Jo played piano for the Living Waters benefit on Roosevelt’s birthday. This year, she and her father take a reprieve from sadness to attend the dance. At school in February, the students feast on government food like canned meat and potatoes. One morning, the students discover a migrant family who sheltered overnight in the school from the road and the dust; the father indicates the mother is due to have her baby soon. Miss Freeman tells them they are welcome to stay. In “Family School,” students bring in donations of food, toys, and clothing for the family. Billie Jo brings the feed-sack nighties, “so small, / so full of hope” (121), that Ma made. When the baby is born, it takes her some time to steady her emotions. The she sees the tiny baby wearing a nightie that was for Franklin. Soon the family packs up to move on. Billie Jo runs down the road after them, begging aloud to go too, but “no one was looking back” (124).

That same month, Sheriff Robertson discovers a moonshine still set up by Ashby Durwin and his friend Rush. The sheriff dumps the whiskey, sour mash, and rye, but gives the thousand pounds of sugar to Miss Freeland to bake sweet treats for the students like custard, cobbler, and apple pandowdy. Also in February, a competition occurs at the Palace. Billie Jo practices a song on the school piano, hoping to win a cash prize, but also hoping to show others she still plays. She wants them to treat her as they used to. The night of the competition draws a huge crowd. Billie Jo waits nervously for other acts to perform, some famous like the Hazel Hurd Players, some local families, and a few groups who play harp, tap dance, or tumble. Billie Jo thinks the beginning of her performance is rough, but by the end she “dropped right inside the music and / didn’t feel anything” (132). She wins a dollar for third place. One jealous performer, Birdie Jasper, says Billie Jo won out of sympathy for being a “cripple,” but the others are kind and congratulatory. Billie Jo’s hands hurt so badly that her father must carry her winnings and ribbon.

In March, Arley asks Billie Jo to play a show for him and plan to travel with Vera and him again that summer. Sitting at Ma’s piano, though, she produces nothing. When she tries to play the show on no practice, she “play[s] like a cripple” (136) and knows Arley will no longer want her to play for him.

This section summarizes Poem 72: “Snow,” Poem 73: “Night School,” Poem 74: “Dust Pneumonia,” Poem 75: “Dust Storm,” Poem 76: “Broken Promise,” Poem 77: “Motherless,” and Poem 78: “Following in His Steps.”

While it is still March, it snows. Billie Jo’s father starts night school; he thinks he should have some education as a back-up plan. Billie Jo thinks he likes the company of the lady students in the class. They make him dinner on school nights which frees Billie Jo from the chore, but she still thinks of them as “biddies” (139). Supply driver Pete Guymon succumbs to dust pneumonia. One night a terrible dust storm arrives while Billie Jo attends a show at the Palace; it takes her three hours to feel her way home, one foot on the road and the other off to keep her path straight. When she finally gets there, Daddy is gone, having left to find her. She coughs up dust all night waiting for him. He comes in at dawn, dust-covered and red-eyed. They try to have breakfast but give up because of the dust.

In “Broken Promise,” “It rained / a little / everywhere / but here” (147). It occurs to Billie Jo that if Ma was still there, she might not feel such a strong urge to leave. In the last poem of this long section, Fonda Nye, Haydon’s wife, dies of dust pneumonia, though most say she just did not want to live without Haydon. Billie Jo thinks how she felt that way when Ma first died, but now she can tell “that one day / comes after another / and you get through them / one measure at a time” (149). She does, however, want to leave home and leave the dust behind.