U and I
Born in the gullah cypress shade
of South Carolina
Dirt poor
Rich coffee bean skin
Teardrop-shaped pearl eyes ...
midnight black forest feminine
Uneducated and illiterate ...
Living swamp school books
was her God-given natural wit
Wisdom which breathed from the dark soil
Trampled upon by educated elephants
with lazy literary tusks,
whom never once had to truly toil
Pay the peons in euro peanuts
was the turn-of-the-century attitude
Race the stallions and mares
without benefit of schoolhouse shoes
Granny love
how often was
the horse buggy whip laid upon you
Uneducated and illiterate ...
opposites were u and i
Born of the same branch,
my soul extend to her an olive leaf sigh
Uneducated and illiterate
was you,
but papa swore
it would never be I
Granny you were the wisest woman
I ever knew
for twenty four years til the day you died
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