lucky to have a grandma
by Devin Campbell
I.
I’m lucky to have a grandma
teach me to make salsa
she’s always been old to me
she rolls around and round all day
can’t nobody talk about her kids
and pretend to be her friend
can’t nobody top my grandma
she got some fresh peaches from the farm-stand
on Highway Fifty-Nine she said
Best dang peaches y’all ever ate them suckers was
good like walkin a maze at the fair
and kissin a carny
good like workin a job every day or your life
and never gettin tired from it
good like pretendin in your childhood room
and there’s glow stars glowin
good like makin monster masks from paper sacks
and cuttin the eye holes out
I’m lucky to have a grandma who said
We got such a small world ain’t we?
who went to that farm stand
got thirteen pounds fresh okra
twenty nine pounds purple hull peas she said
That ought keep Papaw busy,
make him feel useful
like he got somethin to do
go-oninair ask him what he wantsta eat
II.
Papaw said I don’t know
why I make her fix up all my meals
I could do it I think,
just get so dang frustrated
when I get around slow
like waitin for the gopher’s head
to pop up
like pokin a copperhead
out the tree
like cookin breakfast before the hunt
watchin the biscuits rise
watchin the sausage roll
no more biscuits these days
hunt’s over
like a tree growin big-n-tall til one day
all the limbs fall off
and another day
it topples
like a old man,
realreal slowlike
I’m lucky to have a Papaw who cheers
when the man in the Western steals
a kiss before the hillside battle
when he already has the medicine
being sold on the commercial
when most the lights in the place
are off
and the old grandfather
clock is off a minute
and he makes it right
III.
Papaw calls
his wife
Woman
and wants
to take
care of her
old man
he is
Devin Lee Campbell is a writer and bookseller currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. They enjoy working with their hands, tending to their pets, and retreating into the forest whenever life allows. Inquiries can be directed to [email protected].