Mama, my mama lady come and see I’ve got a new truth that I found under the rock today in the yard. It’s fairly difficult to explain so I’ll go slow oh, mama, I can’t eat now there’s too much to see …
Mama, my good old lady baby, listen while I tell you sit down forget about the baby I’ve got news from town soldiers are gone and the jobs are comin’ back got no time for dinner gotta see Mr. B. about the car…
Mama, old mama you’ve been so good to me while I’ve been out on the road across the sea under fire over the fence beyond the universe. It’s been hard comin’ home from there at times knowin’ that another discovery is just waitin’ for my eyes and hands. Oh, I’ve got too much apologizing to do now, mama, to eat but your cookin’ has always been good….
Oh Mama, I look down at you now old lady you in that tireless position, no enemy but within to grab you. Oh I can tell you now ’cause I see a whole lot better now from here and the truth is getting clearer and I got all the time to eat but I
can’t swallow, feel, touch, hold
you mama oh lady the best friend a man ever had.
—Connie Woodring is a 72-year-old retired psychotherapist/educator/social activist who is getting back to her true love of writing after 45 years in her real job. She has a B.A.in English from Penn State University and a MSS from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Her poem On the Death of My Parents was published in Dime Show Review. Her poem Curiosity was published in Ariel Chart Magazine. Her poems The Glass Jar and Inquisition Blues have been published in Mookychick Magazine.