70spoems/minnie

MISS MINNIE

In the summer
Miss Minnie used to walk
to Merrick’s grocery
to buy salt pork,
lard, and a ten-pound
bag of corn meal.

In the summer
we bought catfish
down by the river
and fried up
the biggest mess
you ever saw,
with cole slaw,
hush puppies,
and watermelon.

In the summer
we took Miss Minnie home
when she got too old
to carry the corn meal,
in the summer
we took Miss Minnie home
to her one-room shack,
where she lived
with her chickens
and her set of Paul Revere cookware,
shined to beat the devil,
in the summer.

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