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
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