( this is for my beloved Grandmother aka "G'. Gone but never forgotten)
Her only crime was that SHE FORGOT
Eighty was not easy for her. SHE FORGOT
She told me how it felt: " Its like walking down a road and you come to a huge hole in the ground. You know that it's a hole but you cant remember how to get around it to keep on with your journey. So you stand there stuck..looking..just standing there. It never occurs to you to go around it, or over it, or anything. You simple DONT REMEMBER what to do next, but the "Hole in the ground" episodes are frequent, more than I would like to admit "
SHE FORGETS...
and after having been alive for at least 80 years and REMEMBERING, and putting things in good order, and simply living...dealing with her own issues of being a WOMAN, a Black WOMAN in an era that had little room for Black WOMEN and their issues -- a GOOD BLACK WOMAN, a wife, a mother, a daughter,a sister,a grandmother, a great-grandmother; each role with its own LIFETIME set of ISSUES...
It became criminal when she began to FORGET.
FORGET to eat....FORGET to keep her clothes on..FORGET to go to the toilet...FORGET...to put on the other shoe..FORGET that paper money in her hand or photographs of people who have shared her life, are not tissue paper to be torn to shreds...FORGET that other people sleep at 1 a.m. or 4 a.m......Her days and nights merge into one..all together into one gray fog or one navy blue funk...
SHE FORGETS...
SHE IS.. a Dignified, Beautiful, Smart and Witty WOMAN.
Somebody's Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Grandmother, Great-GrandMother,
Her only crime was that SHE FORGOT
Eighty was not easy for her. SHE FORGOT
She told me how it felt: " Its like walking down a road and you come to a huge hole in the ground. You know that it's a hole but you cant remember how to get around it to keep on with your journey. So you stand there stuck..looking..just standing there. It never occurs to you to go around it, or over it, or anything. You simple DONT REMEMBER what to do next, but the "Hole in the ground" episodes are frequent, more than I would like to admit "
SHE FORGETS...
and after having been alive for at least 80 years and REMEMBERING, and putting things in good order, and simply living...dealing with her own issues of being a WOMAN, a Black WOMAN in an era that had little room for Black WOMEN and their issues -- a GOOD BLACK WOMAN, a wife, a mother, a daughter,a sister,a grandmother, a great-grandmother; each role with its own LIFETIME set of ISSUES...
It became criminal when she began to FORGET.
FORGET to eat....FORGET to keep her clothes on..FORGET to go to the toilet...FORGET...to put on the other shoe..FORGET that paper money in her hand or photographs of people who have shared her life, are not tissue paper to be torn to shreds...FORGET that other people sleep at 1 a.m. or 4 a.m......Her days and nights merge into one..all together into one gray fog or one navy blue funk...
SHE FORGETS...
SHE IS.. a Dignified, Beautiful, Smart and Witty WOMAN.
Somebody's Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Grandmother, Great-GrandMother,
Great-Great Grandmother.
SHE HAS.. by her example shown other family WOMEN how to "BE", what to say, what to wear, how to behave, how to cook,how to blot your lipstick, how to be thankful, how to be a good wife, when to wear dress gloves, how to grow collards and tomatas and how to pray.
I , another FORGETFUL WOMAN
also somebody's Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Grandmother, Aunt, GreatAunt...Wish that I could help her when SHE FORGETS or get her a reprive from her cast away sentence, just because SHE FORGOT. At 80.
Eternally,
Klee ( she swore up and down she couldnt say Khalilah ) :)
I wont ever FORGET HER...
(c) Black Calla Lilly
aka Umm Saalih
SHE HAS.. by her example shown other family WOMEN how to "BE", what to say, what to wear, how to behave, how to cook,how to blot your lipstick, how to be thankful, how to be a good wife, when to wear dress gloves, how to grow collards and tomatas and how to pray.
I , another FORGETFUL WOMAN
also somebody's Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Grandmother, Aunt, GreatAunt...Wish that I could help her when SHE FORGETS or get her a reprive from her cast away sentence, just because SHE FORGOT. At 80.
Eternally,
Klee ( she swore up and down she couldnt say Khalilah ) :)
I wont ever FORGET HER...
(c) Black Calla Lilly
aka Umm Saalih
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