Relatives
Grandma lives in this town;
in fact all over this town.
Granpa's dead.
Uncle Heery's brain-dead,
and them aunts! Well!
It's grandma you have to contend
with.
She's here - she's there!
She works in the fast food
hangout.
She's doing school lunches.
She's the crossing guard at the school
corner.
She's the librarian's assistant.
She's part-time in the real estate
office.
She's stuffing envelopes.
She gets up at three A.M.
to go to the screw factory;
and at night she's at the business
school
taking a course in computer
science.
Now you take this next town.
Grandpa's laid out in the cemetery
and grandma's gone wild and bought a bus
ticket
to Disneyland.
Uncle Bimbo's been laid up for ten
years
and them aunts
are all cashiers in ladies'
clothing
and grandma couldn't stand the sight of
them
washing their hands and their hair
and their panty hose.
"It's Marine World for me" grandma
says.
©1997, Ruth Stone. Published in
Prairie Schooner Vol. 71, No.1, Spring 1997.
Ruth Stone |