Magnolia,
Mississippi
Carl
Palmer
Thank
ya anyways, there son, I appreciate your offer; however, I don't
reckon I'll be goin' anywheres just yet.
It
ain't like I ain't beholdin' to ya, it's just that my Momma, rest
her soul, didn't raise up her daughter thatta way, ya know what
I mean?
Us
Duvalls pretty much learnt to take care of our own predicaments,
ever what life dishes out, with the help of our Good Lord, we
most usually get it done.
I
don't need to tell ya that I'm a touch old, but I ain't useless.
It'll just take me a mite longer now to get my affairs in order
than what it used to.
I'm
seventy-two and I've been livin' in this here house for seventy-two
years, that my Daddy built. Just like most of the houses around
here in this part of Magnolia, Mississippi—family built.
I
take kindly to your gesture and it was good talkin' with ya, now
y'all need to get on out of here because this mess ain't gonna
be fixin' itself anytime real soon.
You
wanna help somebody, help them poor folks what live in the shanty
part of town, over yonder in the Buena Vista neighborhood in them
cracker box trailer houses. This here flood water is probably
gonna be terribly high down there.
I've
got some jars of stewed tomaters and a bushel basket of fresh
okra that'll be really good boiled up that you boys can tote with
ya if you're headed down that way. We've got to take care of the
ones what ain't as good off as us. This is America and that's
what Americans do.
Thank
ya again for stoppin' by. Y'all be careful in that little boat
of yours and may God bless us all in this time of need.
Bye-bye
now, I've got my chores still need tendin' to and don't forget
them tomaters, ya hear?
***
Carl
Palmer is the author of Telling Stories and Memory
Moments, collections of flash fiction and poetry performed
at his open mike events in the Puget Sound Region of the Pacific
Northwest. He has works published in Scotland, England, Germany,
Algeria, India, Australia, Canada, and the United States, with
selected poetry translated into Arabic, Hindi and French. Carl
is a member of The Puget Sound Poetry Connection, Striped Water
Poets of Auburn, The Writers Roundtable, New Poets of Lakewood, Dream Weavers,
and The Tacoma Writers Club.
©
Carl Palmer