Up
on the Highway
Dr.
Peggy Smith Duke
Granny
said taming that river
was
a good thing seeing as
Uncle
Roy drowned during the flood
trying
to cross Goochie’s Ford
in
the car. We went to see
Granny’s
new house up
on
the highway. They built Aunt Effie
one,
too, to move them out of the holler
where
they were making a lake.
Three
rooms and a freezer porch
and
they dug
brand
new outhouses.
She
had electricity now, up
on
the highway, so the TVA
put
in an electric stove
and
a wood stove. She cooked
on
the wood stove
because it did better. A crock
of
buttermilk with a saucer on top
sat
on the kitchen table
waiting
for the black skillet of
corn
bread that came
out
of the wood stove
steaming.
A
warm, humid breeze
lifted
the rhythm of horses
and
Mennonite wagon wheels
through
the open window
a
swinging lantern its only
light
on the moonless night.
Come
morning we helped Aunt Effie
lower
the quilting frame
from
the ceiling in the sitting room
before
we left to come back home
with
baskets full of peas and corn
and
two quilts they had just finished.
***
Dr.
Peggy Smith Duke is a poet and writer living in rural Middle
Tennessee, with her husband, four dogs, one cat, and a disagreeable
horse. During racing season, she serves as crew chief for her
husband’s competitive sportsman drag racing. She worked in
aircraft and appliance manufacturing for 20 years and has published
in newspapers, professional journals, and magazines for 30 years.
Her poetry has been published in The Trunk (2003, 2004)
and John Reid’s Traveling: An Anthology of Award-Winning
Poetry (2005). Her poem, "Shirt Factory," won Most
Highly Commended recognition in the Tom Howard Poetry Contest,
and she is three times a poetry winner in the Middle Tennessee
State University Writer’s Loft Fiction and Poetry Competition.
She holds a BS in Journalism and an MA in Industrial Psychology
from Middle Tennessee State University, and an EdD from Vanderbilt
University. In 2004 she completed a writing certificate with a
focus in poetry.
©
Dr. Peggy Smith Duke