Her Blue Kitchen

if for one half hour I can
I go back to my grandmother's kitchen


she stands behind her sink in her low-heeled shoes
her feet are long and slender
her legs go forever

one day when I am in my teens
my grandfather will take me aside and point to my grandmother as she stands at that sink
He will say, "Did you ever see legs like that on a seventy year old woman?

He calls her Queenie, and she called him Father.

They are the parents in my dream book.

She appreciates her things. When I arrive at her home I run in to the kitchen first for a glass of water. She will serve it to me in one of her colorful aluminum tumblers. She will explain with pride that her water tastes so good because she has an artesian well.

there will be Beulah bakery bread with fresh butter, and for breakfast we will have pancakes which she makes on her long griddle. She will make mine Mickey Mouse.

Everything is special. The approach to the backdoor can be had by walking betwwen two huge cedars that have been allowed to grow together. They make a darkened little play forest for my little girl self. I will serve my dolls tea inside.




I am sitting in the built-in banquette

I feel so safe
sitting there
chatting about nothing and everything
with my Mamie

who will guide me through the day
make certain that I am clean and fed
and rested

I close my eyes, and I can feel her cheek again my little girl face. She smells of talcum powder and

Hers is a house in which the beds are always made.





and now I think of all she gave to me
she gave me her time
lots of it

she was almost fifty when I was born
she had already raised her own children

but she tended me and my sister
when my mother could not