Harold Dupree

Big wheels turn on big mills
Run by big men like Harold Dupree.
Lumbering through
The machine shop,
He dwarfed normal folks and most machinery.

Perfect basketball material at 6’6” but
The railroad promised him full training,
So he left high school early
Became a master millwright
Shinning steam wheels into phosphorus glows

Saving every nickel
Wondering how to ask
Lydia Keeton to be his wife.

He leaned his lanky self
Next to the mill one day
Practicing his asking words
Never noticing the steel teeth nibbling
At his sleeves
Until the crimson river consumed
Every inch of him
And everyone marveled at how long it
Took to snatch up such a big man.

Milling and saving took 17 years
Never quite enough money
Until Lydia left
Marrying the butcher’s boy.