\u201cWhat is in the marrow is hard to take\u00a0out of the bone.\u201d
\n\u2013 Irish saying<\/span><\/p>\n
Since the initiation of Marrow in 2008, what I find myself working against (besides the challenges that life presents) is the language that too often surrounds Jonestown: ill-fated, tragic. The poems that come clearly want to be more than that, even when \u2013 probably if \u2013 their stories are underscored by those elements. These are still early drafts of two of them.<\/p>\n
My Mama Come From Mississippi<\/strong><\/p>\n
with a twenty dollar bill
\ntucked in her panties
\n\u2018cause her daddy say
\nnobody bet\u2019not find it there
\nwarning more threatening
\nmos\u2019ly hoping. She had
\na green suitcase
\nthat banged bruises in her
\nskinny calves
\nand a handbag
\nsay she bought with
\nthe last of her check
\nfrom Miss Mae
\nso she could look citified
\nand in the cold last of the 3 she spent the night in
\nwhere the pink knit sweater her mama
\ngive her
\ncouldn\u2019t take the chill.
\nShe made a pact
\nwith the Lord won\u2019t nobody gonna turn her \u2018round
\nFillmore
\nwas gon\u2019 be her Promised Land.<\/p>\nA woman make
\nher way
\nwhat way she know how.<\/p>\nShe promise me every
\nmorning I wouldn\u2019t be
\nno hongrier than she
\nhad been once they run
\nup they bill for provisions
\nnear every just \u2018fore
\nharvest and she promised
\nmy brother every callus on her feet would be
\nworth $10 toward his schooling and she promised
\nMiss Mae, Miss Jo, Miss Edna, Miss Donna, Miss Moore
\nthe sweetest cakes, limp-crisp bacon, and never a
\nspot on they china.<\/p>\nMy mama promise herself to my papa
\njust \u2018fore my brother was born wore every
\none of them promises like a coat
\nand still never had \u2018nough to cover in
\nonce night come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n#####<\/center><\/p>\n Makeshift Daddy<\/strong><\/p>\n
I walk with my whole foot; heel then toe
\nSchool comes to me like a cadence; script
\nprecise and sure. In ball games my body convicts my ma\u2019s friends.
\nAt night they beg forgiveness cloaked in grateful tears.<\/p>\nThe baby girl gods me makeshift daddy.<\/p>\n
Fear and ego fail me.<\/p>\n
I will get the girl,
\nwrite screenplays.
\nhang from the rim
\nrefusing to move from recollection.<\/p>\nI do
\nevery afternoon glistening
\npost-puberty victory, flexed in the
\ntilling of heat for a sooner harvest.<\/p>\nSome nights dance
\nand lob my voice like fertilizer; shush
\nmy brothers
\nuntil their turn
\ncomes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n(Poet darlene anita scott is a regular contributor to <\/em>the jonestown report. Her complete collection of writings and poetry for this site may be found here<\/a>. She can be reached at <\/em>darleneanitascott@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat is in the marrow is hard to take\u00a0out of the bone.\u201d \u2013 Irish saying Since the initiation of Marrow in 2008, what I find myself working against (besides the challenges that life presents) is the language that too often surrounds Jonestown: ill-fated, tragic. The poems that come clearly want to be more than that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":30364,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30237","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30237"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52086,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30237\/revisions\/52086"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}