“Stepped in the water
water was cold
chilled my body
but not my soul”
We go down to Russell Creek
to see Artie git baptized.
The preacher-man,
he hands me her coat
then leads thet big woman
into the water, like she’s a child.
In her younger days
she laid up with Billy Joe,
havin his babies
without no marriage liscense
or nuthin
but now she’s given
her life to the Lord
an repentin o her ways,
a new woman
an she wants everbody
ta know it. This here water
don’t warsh away no sins.
The blood o Jesus done thet
two thousand years ago.
Artie, she’s a showin her old self
done been carried off
like a crumb on the water.
The woman
thets a goin down
ain’t the one a comin up.
Artie’s borned agin
an on her way to Heaven.
Hit don’t matter
what anybody says.
*A true story poem, dedicated to my friend, Artie, who passed away 20 years ago from breast cancer, but I was the youngin on the bank who held her coat the day she was baptized.
Wow..this is a powerful poem. I love how you take little things from your memory and bring them to life as a lesson..This one is very nice.
Thank you, Connetta. I hope you don’t mind but I visited your site and wow, how beautiful. Do you take all the pictures yourself? Just from being there I can tell you are a person who understands how it is the millions of little wires that make a rocket fly and it is the little things that make a life rich and well lived. Again, thank you so very much.
Nochipa
Nochipa,
yes all the pictures ( and poems) on my site , are by me..i live in south eastern, Ohio. USA..and all the pictures are taken there. mostly on the backroads.
the hardest thing with poetry is finding people to read them..and comment. thank you for taking time out to read my work and letting me know your thoughts. it meens a lot.
your work truly inspires my creative thoughts..i hope i can do that for you too somehow..
nochipa
what can i say?
the voice just pulls me in to the work
something young
something old s
omething without fashion
something wise in the telling
is revealed in the voice
when you write like this
a dimension opens up to the reader
music a place in time geography
the smell of the earth becomes irresistible
Jack,
Thank you for these words,”when you write like this
a dimension opens up to the reader
music a place in time geography
the smell of the earth becomes irresistible” and all that came before. You are incredibly kind.
Nochipa