October 11 1939 Mrs. Hull Dead Ox Flat, Oregon
The M. M. Hull Family originally from Oklahoma.
Haven’t enough income from eggs and butter fat
to take care of their living expenses.
House built for a chicken house.
Plan to build a better house after farm is in production.
FSA Office Report: Document Submitted by Dorothea Lange
The way you handled the light It files
through the dugout window falls on Mrs Hull
her owl glasses her immaculate tiny print apron
the spindle-back chair You make me care for Mrs Hull
I imagine she dressed for this occasion This chance
to sit for Dorothea Lange No she didn’t have any idea
who you were She wanted to be photographed
the way she looked all put together
Still it is not Mrs Hull the way she’s dressed
or the cramped tidy dugout Rather it is the date
October 11 Your date your month twenty-six years away
A day you sail toward oblivious
The living can always close
the dead’s right parenthesis