Grand Ma

Grand Ma Depending on a day’s mood- Grand Ma my mind recalls; Saint or Devil in the wood For fast writ on the walls!!! Ah! Lovely Devil was she She’d catch you up the tree Or acted a wise witty witch Fishing you out of the ditch! “This hand your mum it trained “Would I then be restrained “Or to failure my head nod “In decadence while you plod!?” *** All the relentless rigour Adult me I recall with vigour It was meant with love Not game of the grisly grove! Palms rough and cracked Castor oil she gently smacked Sores on my supple back To sooth clean and black! Brewer unpaid and at home Just for the lust of bonhomie (How I burned my thirsty lips With harsh stolen brew sips!) Traditional dance drummer Hands hard as the hammer Tanning the dry cow leather Throughout the night weather! Indeed, they fell in a trance Those in a frenzied prance Then, for home I’d escape In the pitch black landscape! Grand Ma had ragged raiment Yet healed every bad ailment Was I to revile her mood, Study of Science in the wood? Surprise of it all was her age When she took the passage.... With her teeth sound intact And Memory quite compact! *** My Dad would obsequies While Mum paid courtesies To the bygone lady of yore Who knew no gospel before. Send-off without drums No shakes of drunken bums No brew, no castor oil No coffin, body; wrapped coil! “Let her possessed spirit rest “Don’t let Demons manifest “Should for her you mourn “Her spirit will not sojourn!” Ah! I ate, slept beside granny Never felt a feeling funny. Was I with demons in contact Yet, am still sound and intact? Whether demons or seraph This is to her a cenotaph: You had a scant body hood Yet, rich in gen of the wood. My very life’s heartbeat Resonates with that drum beat, As I recall the sprite massage And pray to pass at your age! JM 05th December 2013