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.

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