An Incomplete Portrait of My Great-Grandmother
Savannah Stewart Born Bertha Mae later grandmother-baptized Bebe Second mother to eight thousand little sisters and brothers her entire life inside five square miles never gazing too long at the train as it fades from town Bebe leads my mother in her champagne froth wedding gown around the family tree every name calligraphed on her mind Bebe leads my mother once again at the funeral for my grandfather where out of tradition my father’s family does not cry they do not cry when she is gone either so let me not forget the mattress squeezed in the backseat where my cousins and I would sleep too fast and tempest-tossed and the smell of chickenshit signaling your house was close and let me not forget your Bible page thin skin and how cold you were your steel trap mind rusted shut a world I could not understand then and will never know now, sealed away sleeping surrounded by your family canopied by the chinquapins |
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About the Author: Savannah Stewart is a creative writing undergraduate at Stephen F. Austin State University. She is the mother of a six year old orange tabby named Abbey. Her short story, "Wild Night" won second place in The Piney Dark Horror Writing Contest.