A Poem for a Thursday #322

Grace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, teacher, and activist. She was born to Ukrainian immigrants in the Bronx. The family spoke Russian and Yiddish at home and Paley grew up between the old and the new cultures. Paley used conversation and dialect to inform her characters. She wrote what she knew and told deceptively simple stories. While mainly known for her short stories, Paley also published a number of volumes of poetry.

Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen
well that's who I wanted to be

at last   a woman
in the old style   sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt   grandchildren sliding
on   off my lap   a pleasant
summer perspiration

that's my old man across the yard
he's talking to the meter reader
he's telling him the world's sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth   I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa   ask him
to sit beside me for a minute   I 
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips

Here
Grace Paley