"oh sugar"

By Tommy Long

“oh sugar”

By third year Jordyn Faucette

I screamed at your rocking chairs, your peaches, your rolling hills, your worry lines, your calluses till the screams drug me away, away from our home, our trees, our dogs, our dinner, our porch. They drug me so far I forgot I was being drug, thought I was overcoming and I’d snuffed out the song of my bones. the urge for the sun on my back, to make my partner all the dinner he can eat, to put my hands on my hips like the 3 generations of women that raised me used to. I got out, don't you know? I worked and I studied and I read and I'm going to be different. My children will live differently. Oh that’s Kristi’s little girl, bless her heart poor thing. I will live differently. I picked us a bucket of peaches on the way home, eat you one it’ll make you feel better. I will be accomplished. the table filled to the brim, feet bare, don't you want some more of them potatas baby? I will be the first. oh i sure am proud of you sugar.  

I got out, don't you know? oh i sure am proud of you sugar.

I got out, didn't nobody tell you? oh i sure am proud of you sugar.

I'm out but, oh we sure are proud of you sugar. 

i can still feel it in my feet, oh we sure are proud of you sugar

in my bones oh we sure are proud of you sugar

in my dna oh we sure are proud of you sugar

all of it still here,

I made you some dinner baby, aren't you hungry? They must not be feeding you up there. 

Oh baby don't cry, I'm here. 

Welcome home.