The two names the journey of my life would carry through
Faithfully by sisters side I always remained
Till only one in the year two thirteen I came
Boaz never called for me to redeem
And now I go beyond in my Lord's fields to glean....
Esther Ruth Moore
6 Jan 1922
11 April 2013
What's for dinner today
Sunday leftovers?
Come Friday
I'd say catfish fried
With some
Green's on the side
Sounds mighty fine
What say you
Miss Lola Mae?
By john clare
All along the long Gum Swamp
Hear the rosin drip in the clay pots
The seeping from Osceola's pine stands
Slashes from the axe of the bent black men
In the stiffened breeches
Shirtless and oozing sweat with every gash
Singing in unison through the palmetto
"Boss man's ridin' by
Boss man's ridin' by
Look out, boy, look out!"
Looking past Taylor across the bank of the St Mary's
Into the shade of the mythical
Diddu-Wah-Diddy
Pllace of no work or worry
For man or beast
The way there so crooked
The mule pullin' the fodder wagon could eat from it
Place everyone would live
If only the road weren't so crooked and the route known
Today the rut road is black topped and easy is the straight way
Uncle Bud but a distant memory of when he left the state of old Virginia in the winter time;
"Where you guin nigger"?,they said.
"I'se guin to Flardi,
I'se guin to Flardi,
guin to Flardi to work
In de turpentine.
Guin to where all de curb stones is chairs
Guin to where all de food is already cooked
Baked chickens and sweet potato pies
with convenient knives and forks driftin' along cryin',
"Eat me! Eat me!"
Where the more you ate
The more remained."
But mostly the old turpentine men wound up settlin' for
Beluthahatchee
A land of forgetfulness
Where all was forgotten and forgiven
Unhitchin' the mule by the neat little shanty
In the sand swept yard with
Mammy and the chicken's scratchin' a livin'
This side of the crooked and
black St Mary's River.
We gathered round the magic canvas
If it would please reveal something to us
If inspiration was in our future
Or more misery void of color
It took an entire bottle of wine
But in the magic canvas own time
This image emerged with profound words
But before we could write it down
Gesso was applied and the
Inspiration never found.
And in the latter days
The days after fossil fuel
Electric too
The days of malaise
The pedal prophets came
Exclaiming, lube your chains
But we of the beastly mark
Our bikes could not start
for our lube was of
Petroleum product.
Catch a river
It was the most unorthodox method
My only lure was Suwannee inside
I cast upon the land the liquid
Oh how I like my river fried.
Johnclarestokes
Last evening an angel came
Unlocked the chains
Opened the cell windows
The heavy doors
With light blinding streaming in
Quickly now!come! The angel said
Looking about
All the clinging chains clamored,
Stay! Stay!
We are your friends!
Do not abandon us here!
I almost said, I'll stay
When the angel told me
Weep not for the chains
Tomorrow comes another
Shackled to comfort them
Forgetting they ever
Held you tight.
Irene and Vera. A kind man gave Magoo a rare tip when he was a DME and he passed it on, telling Vera, then 92 that he would give her a print of her mother Irene and her, whom she lost at the age of eleven, her mother dying in childbirth. Magoo’s father lost his own mother, a year later in 1937 from a blood cot. He never forgot his Ethel Marie either. Today on Mothers Day, if she is yet among us, Vera would be 100.
Over Once Upon A Time
Elephant herds roamed
The heavens
But they were heavy
And felI
From Heaven
Where today
They roam
In my deepest dreams above me
One comes floating gently
Wake, wake the day awaits
Reaching, the tiny hand I take
Rising to greet the happy day
We float higher along our way.
john clare
Who first when you were lifted from her womb
did you call upon but
Mamma,mamma!
Who first when you were scared of the
dark in your room
did you call upon but
Mamma,mamma!
Who first when you tripped and broke your tooth
did you call upon but
Mamma,mamma!
Who first when dad was about to spank and
wanted the truth
did you call upon but
Mamma,mamma!
Who at the first day of grade school
did you call out for but
Mamma,mamma!
Who cheered the loudest at your games and
was always there
Who did you seek out first but
Mamma,mamma!
Who when you walked the aisle for your diploma
did you want first to show but
Mamma,mamma!
Who when you found the girl just like mamma
did you hurry home to tell but
Mamma,mamma!
And who when that first son was born did you
want first to hold but
Mamma,mamma!
And why is it that now after all those calls to
Mamma
Did today you not first call
Mamma,mamma?
johnClare stokes
Oh the dark secrets that could be learned
If we were only given the gift to discern
Why we could see by the expression
The inner thoughts so long repressing
In the eyes know without a doubt
That in eighty three with whom you were out
Why now after all these years
You still shed those mysterious tears
We could even tell without a smell
The smoke from the fires you made
And how so long ago with matches you played.
