I was twelve
and watched my mother
wipe sweat away
as she hunched over the ironing board,
carefully pressing a crease
in my first pair of long pants,
which already struck me
two inches above my dress-up shoes,
bearing a scuff from kicking
an empty RC Cola bottle home from school.
My mother said that
some day I’d be as tall as my grandfather,
who stood six four,
was wounded and captured
just before the surrender at Appomattox
and spent the last three months
of the Civil War in a Union prison.
I have a bearded picture of him
standing a head taller than his horse.
My mother placed my trousers over
the back of a kitchen chair
and hummed a nameless tune she said
she learned from her mother.
My grandmother was
my widowed grandfather’s third wife,
and he was her second husband.
My mother was
my widowed father’s second wife,
his first my mother’s sister.
I figured out
that my father was my uncle
and I was
my own first cousin.
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Carole~
Love,
Christine
This jewel of a poetic tale is awesome
Well Penned, enjoyed reading
Thank you for sharing
William
Legacy
Cheers,
Dan
Here I'm reading seriously along and then you whammy that one on my head... Pretty cool, you old rascal Gene!
I enjoyed this insight into You!
gina
Relatively speaking, I don't look too closely at my kin -for fear that I'll learn something worse tha you did Refreshing rebirth of this tale. - Bill
In Spirit,
Bear
EDvard(k) sane ED Old Brother
Lin
Regis
The direct approach works very well here, brings us close to you in a real everyday way, the domestic act of ironing giving the poem a symbolic 'edge' and sharing your transition to manhood. The final two stanzas are family with twists and the ending in this context is poignant, humorous and so apt.
John
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :D
Axilea
Love,
Eileen
But goodness golly gee...someone’z been sow’in some seeds ‘round the family tree :) Your a funny man!!!
I can relate to the high tides too...now-a-dayz they are in style & they call'em “crops or capris”...for the ladies anyway...
Thanks for the smiles Gene!!!
Much Love & Continued Inspirations!
Embraced~Embrassé
Vickie