This past July was the hottest month ever on record for Oklahoma, or any other state for that matter. Farmers and ranchers have been hit the hardest by the drought. As grass browns and dies, they have to buy hay to feed their animals at prices sometimes triple the average cost. As ponds dry up, they are forced to sell off their livestock because they can’t keep them hydrated. In this segment of Poetry to the People, a handful of farmers and ranchers read Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel's poem "Spare Me Yellow Skies" and reflect on how they’ve fared during this brutal summer. Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel was born in 1918 into an Oklahoma sharecropping family. In 1936 they fled the drought, dust and the Depression of Oklahoma. She died in California in 2007.

This past July was the hottest month ever on record for Oklahoma, or any other state for that matter. Farmers and ranchers have been hit the hardest by the drought. As grass browns and dies, they have to buy hay to feed their animals at prices sometimes triple the average cost. As ponds dry up, they are forced to sell off their livestock because they can’t keep them hydrated. In this segment of Poetry to the People, a handful of farmers and ranchers read Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel's poem "Spare Me Yellow Skies" and reflect on how they’ve fared during this brutal summer. Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel was born in 1918 into an Oklahoma sharecropping family. In 1936 they fled the drought, dust and the Depression of Oklahoma. She died in California in 2007.