PALMETTO POEM: I heard irises blooming

By Al Black

Yesterday, in her voice
I heard a little girl who
walked rows of beans
picking worms from the vine
to plop in a tobacco can
I heard the Great Depression
I heard a family forced off the farm
I heard a country girl
who was too smart to be so poor
I heard a girl who prayed for a way out
I heard a wistful young woman
who married and left

I heard homecoming visits
I heard KMOX radio, the chatter of German
clinking beer bottles, pastries and coffee cake
I heard irises blooming under the apricot tree
I heard family – I heard laughter
I heard secrets unspoken
I heard the chiming clock on Grandpa’s wall
measure time in 15 minute intervals
I heard a small town
I heard twenty years of growing up poor
I heard this lilt in Mom’s voice
that these seventy years gone
will never heal

Al Black is a northern born Southern poet, who published for the first time with the release of his book, ‘I Only Left For Tea’ in late 2014 and has a new book, ‘Odysseus’ Dog’ coming out in mid-2016. Since the release of his first book in 2014, the Columbia-based poet has been published in four compilations, several journals and blogs. He hosts events in the Columbia area and is presently touring the Southeast with Len Lawson in their ‘Poets Respond to Race’ tour.