Grandmother said

dress your best when you go to town 

hold your head high

driving 7 miles from the small house at

the edge of the cotton field

Granddaddy plowed rigorously

 

when the field dried

& he could no longer plow

he became a magician

making school children laugh until

he lost his mind & was institutionalized 

 

Grandmother, the most righteous

her father, a missionary to Indians 

her ancestors, slave-owners 

 

in ’38 her husband, his money lost to

crooked bankers

that never recorded his payments 

drove that dirt lane in their black cars

 

family possessions – passed down 

heirlooms & old quilts

saved for decades 

were hauled away.