Read Poem: GRANDMA FANNIE, by DMaria Woods

Smothered fried chicken, mustard greens, and black-eyed peas.

My grandma’s stockings rolling beneath her knees.

I hear her shoes, scrubbing the hardwood floors

as she shuffles through the hallway and out the backdoor.

Pockets full of clothespins, and a threaded needle on her apron.

Sun is shining on brown aging skin, a

Southern woman old and thin.

Born in Little River County, Arkansas

Fannie’s a long way from home.

One man and 14 children later, only six survive.

Spit’en Garrett snuff, and singing gospel hymns,

I can only imagine where she’s been.

As a child I’d think, did she ever have friends?

Grandma Fannie up at dawn

faithfully singing her gospel songs,

My mother’s mother and both are gone.