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POETRY

“Naomi,” read by Morgan Carlock Clark.

Naomi

–meaning “pleasant” or “gentle”

I visited Granny G after school and asked her to tell me stories:
She was smaller than other children by at least three inches.
While swinging, she dropped her cotton hankie,
and several girls stole it and beat her up when she asked for it back.
She had her tonsils taken out on her kitchen table by a neighbor, a veterinarian.
Living by railroad tracks, she fed sandwiches to hobos.
When her drunk father hit her mother, she’d run to the neighbor’s house.

When I’d tell her goodbye, she’d say,
“I don’t say goodbye; I say, ‘So long, until we meet again.’”

After her stroke, she couldn’t talk.
She grabbed my hand and brought it to her mouth,
touching my hand with her tongue.
It was a small, wet cloth, like her life—
rough from bullies wringing it,
a hankie embroidered with the words “So long”
and a bright bird. Folded, I’d only see its tail
but know the crown was safe with neighbors in the endless sky.

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Morgan Carlock Clark has been published in Southeast Missouri State University Press, the Underground Writers Association, Canvas Lit, and Sundog Lit. She received an MFA from Seattle Pacific University, and currently teaches creative writing online at Louisiana Christian University.

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Photo is in the Public Domain.