When I Got My Cousins Back: 1973
for my cousin, Mike Hawley
I waited on Grandma's porch
6 hours for you and Greg
and Aunt Nette to finally get
all moved back from Montgomery.
It was Grandma, Pop-Pop and me,
comprised the welcoming committee.
I was so glad to get my cousins back.
It didn't take us long to get started
creating the place in our own image.
First, we made a Starship Enterprise
out of Pop's old trailer. We left the Klingons
no choice, be destroyed or surrender.
Then, we caught the anthills
totally by surprise, they had to retreat
and you and Greg and me
took Hill #3 without firing a shot.
Pop-Pop took us on patrol
to see if there were
any snipes or not.
There never seemed to be.
***
These are things that used
to could happen, if the world gave you
a couple cousins and some acreage.
We dug a magnificent hole,
kept digging and digging
and digging. It only got deeper
and better.
We ate every last Muscadine
right off the vine.
Nothing could be sweeter.
That's the way the corner
of Blanding and Collins used to run,
on Grandma's idea of freedom.
***
One big house
one medium house
one little house
a stand of trees
a really nice ditch
and a chance to be.
That was pretty much all we required
that, and a few rocks to throw at cars.
That's a terrible thing, but, we didn't know
any better and they weren't ours.
***
If Grandma saw her Precious
down in the ditch,
Jessica or Erin, it didn't matter which
it had to be the boys' fault
so she went and cut a switch.
She never had to use it, all we needed
was the threat of some Westside justice.
At night, she'd lay us down a palette
and say: I'll be in this recliner
all night, so boys, don't play.
We did anyway.
If she got any sleep, God Bless Her.
The mornings percolated
with grits and eggs and bacon.
Daylight always brought
an open invitation
to do it all over again.
Who were we to resist temptation?
***
I could go on but, all of our memories
can never be caught. Nor can they be
covered in asphalt, the way
our corner is now.
Anyway, that's not really the lesson here.
The lesson is, as Pop-Pop
used to say, if he wanted us to work
or do anything, but play:
If you got one boy
you got one boy.
If you got two boys
you got half a boy
and if you got three boys
you ain't got no boys
at'all.
Those are my people, y'all.
June 2017
See also Riverboat, which tells the same story as this poem but in essay form, and his song, Symphony in C Regular, which is also about playing with his cousins at Grandma and Pop-Pop's.