Response to Winter's Bone

I walk with my head high, yet feel I feel so low.

There are dreams and wishes inside me,

I will never get to know.  

Pa has left us, momma’s head is gone.

I raise these two boys,

like the sun to its dawn.

My name is Ree Dolly, 

and my demeanor is rough.

I say what I mean, 

and act like Im tough. 

Though just seventeen, I am wise 

and grown-up.  

Ill go looking for Pa, and find him I will. 

It is he that we need, for money and bills.

I will ask around town, of whom has spoke to?

Teardrop warns, for trouble you ask for.

There has to be someone who knows, but who?

I search high and low, trouble I do find,

they beat me, bruise me, and scar my young mind.

Thump Milton is to blame, he gave them permission

his wife and her sisters put all of the hits in.

Pa must be found , or the house we will lose.

Whether dead or alive, his truth I will search for.

From crank to money, his fate, he did not choose.

Pa is dead, the fact I must face,

I need evidence for the bondsman, or consequences I must face.

Where to look I don’t know, but there is someone who does.

He had me beaten, and he is of my own blood.

Thump Milton is the Ozarks and the demons it possesses.

To the lake they do take me to find the hands of Jessup,

we cut through the ice, muddy water and messes.

His hands I take from his frozen corpse

 with chainsaw, regret, and sad remorse.

Now we are okay, the house we will keep.

My heart and mind,  too relieved to weep,

for the father I lost, but life I get back.

Sleepy John took his life, for money Pa owed.

This life in the Ozarks is my long, lonely road.