Hi, this is Janice Northerns, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas, for Poets on the Plains. I’m going to share a poem today by an amazing writer, Rachel Seth Coleman, who was one of the first people I met when I moved to Kanas 27 years ago. Rachel grew up in southwest Kansas, but her father was born in India and emigrated to the U. S. at the age of 14.

On warm nights when my bedroom window was open, I could hear the endless stream of vehicles on Route 66. We lived in a small house at the east edge of Baxter Springs and across the street from my window was a pasture and on nights when there wasn’t any wind the sound of escape — the rushing of tires, the shifting of gears, the bellowing exhaust of trucks hauling goods to Oklahoma or Missouri — swept across the field with the night breeze.

Black Sunday refers to a catastrophic dust storm that struck on April 14, 1935, during the Dust Bowl era in the United States. This event is recognized as one of the most severe dust storms in American history.

Osiyo, nigada! Osi yigawolihisdi. Dagwadoa Rachel Jackson. Tsijalagi. Anigaduwa. Hello everyone in High Plains Public Radio land. This is Rachel Jackson again, from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is home to 39 tribal nations, many of whom inhabited these beautiful plains lands long before any of us. Wadooooo to our relatives for sharing it with us today.