My great grandma danced in the Holy spirit
couldn't crush grapes beneath her feet and
spoke in a shattered monotone and
One sound trembled out in all its little pieces, but
It played beautiful gospel music
Through the slack suit of her skin
Fallen face, smoky sandy eyes she was
Inalienable
Shown through herself the way Christianity shows
Through a cross
A distinct shine like sunlight
With all her years joining together
The spectrum of color
Clear
It frightens you to see what is not real
She was old, weak, and born black in the eighteen hundreds
Still the hands survived all that
She came on you like the full yellow moon in the black sky and
Asked for an arm
Feel it up and down gnawing like a dog on a bone
Until the flesh was tendered
And that's how she'd name you with no sense
Because she had the eyes and ears of a drowning man, but
The touch of a wild animal
Hands
She had could wash clothes against splintered wood in winter
In the old days when lye was how poor people got them self clean
Had to be stronger than life as old as she was
her hands were strong as ever
I believe that's where she kept her soul
Right down in her hands where she could use it
All her kin came at once to see her in a beautiful bouquet of
Summer blossoms tangled up in their buds
The only one allowed to cook was grandma
That way all the food came out soul food
A delicious way to save the soul
Jam
Grandma made with her two strong hands
Blue flames waved against a scarred pot heating sugar water
Thick as syrup while streams of lemon juice squeezed in
Bunched like a stack of collard greens some thirty large and
Red cabbage roses
I saw the roses turn to blood red candy in the pot and
I believed in unicorns with wings and mermaids all at once I believed
If I could taste the color, beauty, and sweetness of roses
That I did
Water sugar lemon roses all together inseparable
nothing is greater than one Grandma used to say and
Everything jams
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