MAMAW
Copyright by James B. Goode

I ate hot cathead biscuits
With muscadine jelly
At the plank table.
A strand of her moist hair fell over one eye.
She placed kindling sticks
In the open eyes of the cook stove.
"I got him off to the mines
At 5 in the morning for 40 years,"
She said as her shaking hands tucked the stray hair
Into the grey bun at the back of her head.
"I was worried sick about him every day he worked.
Men was gettin’ killed or mashed up
Nearly all the time. Fingers and toes cut off...
Backs broke...Eyes put out!
Them that didn’t die in the pit
Drunk themselves into an early grave—
Papaw along with them..."