Kin: Poems

Collard Folk

Collard Folk (for the Women's Auxiliaryl Mudia Pearl at stove front wrist on hip, wooden hand stirrin pots. Children runnin, cryin, laughin, gettin whoopin's and yelled at bout home trainin which Great Granddaddy Verdell say we ain't got. Momma calls to us bout behavioral modifications & what-nots. Unde Ruff & Delmar & Granddaddy shootin shit in corner side, chompin they bits over cream-corn smellin corn bread. Aunt Mame, cousin Reve, Mama & Cecil playin Bidwhist. Momma say Unde Cecil can't play worth a horse's ass, can't shoot shit, & always been a bit funny like that. Ham's done. Cornbread's keepin warm. Turkey been out. Lil-big John keeps gettin his hand slapped for stealin frostin from Bertha's cake. Everybody's waiting on them Collard Greens. 32 Collards, this time, was a bit tart. So, Mudia stirs vinegar to cut, sugar to sweetin vinegar's cut, seasonin to flavor. Clifton and Daisy is back from they Kool-Aid trip, is all kissy-kissy & didn't fool nobody. Mudia cursin & yellin at us children. Momma reach for me to re-braid my hair. "Momma, why we always gotta wait on them Collard Greens?" She say, "Remy, to get good collards, ya gotta add a little of this, stir in a little of that, put some love into & some other what-nots, let it do what it's got to do & in the end you'll see that when you work with what you got, '11 h " you get w at you want. 33 ...