Today, Katrina prompted us to find our “space to look and think” and I focused on the garage of my childhood home. It’s a space I miss. (The image is not our actual garage.)
April 20th: A Space to Look and Think
Tag Archives: childhood
ElevenEleven (Day 4 of 5-Day Writing Challenge)
ElevenEleven
I am born of the power and mystique
Of eleven
Born the eleventh day of the eleventh month
11 days before America’s great mourning
Before a ripped nation
would forever be severed
Born in the eleventh hour and only 120 seconds
After the eleventh minute
I am born of New Orleans
Oklahoma and Los Angeles
Of struggle and success
Marriage and separation
Divorce and devastation
I am born of revolutions
seeking solutions
To injustice and segregation
100 years after Emancipation
A nation steeped in sickness and hatred
Medgar Evers
President John F. Kennedy
And Four Little Girls
Dead
But of a King who would
March
Speak
Stand
For equality in our stead
He had a dream!
Will we let freedom ring?
I am born of a distant father
fighting in Vietnam
For a country that denied
His dignity because of his color
A father who sent letters
But rarely spent time
At the house he chose for my family
Where 3 bedrooms and 3 baths
Were as easy as warm waffles for us
With hopscotch and laggers
Barbies and Beany and Cecil
I am born of a gifted mother
Who balanced her cigarette on her lip
Like she balanced parenting and parties
A master of words, pools, and school
A teacher who never stopped learning
And made us beg for crossword puzzles
Boggle and Rummikub
A woman scorned but undefeated
Someone who lived with cancer
Like a warrior
Adjusted her armor and kept fighting
Until she was ready to be released
Into her ancestors’ arms
I am born of strong legs and working hands
Of bright smiles and freckles
I am born of tears that fall like rain
“As a joyous daybreak to end
The long night of captivity.”
I am born of African kingdoms and royalty
Of the Bantu and the Congo
I am born of a long lineage of power
I am born of God.
Living Without Her
Almost ten years ago today
She left our world
My mother lets us
Live now
Without her
Not connected to anything
My beautiful Mommie
Who made childhood so cool and easy
Summer was our favorite time
Waking to funky sounds on the radio
And aromas of her good bacon
And warm waffles
Playing Monopoly on scratchy shag carpet
On we would go
Dancing for hours
To Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin
And Mommie cheering,
“Get it girls! Ahhh shucks!”
Until it was time to dive into the pool
Sometimes filled with intruders
In ugly pink swim caps
Who she called friends and could
Be themselves
Who had begun swim lessons
Who we’d see again and again
Year after year
Until she got too sick
Or too tired to swim
Or teach again
My mother lets us
Live now without her
But she’s close
We know it’s not going to get easier
Because it’s been almost ten years since
She left here
We remember that day
She left here
The way
She left here
But she’s close
Not connected to anything
Except us