there wasn’t much sweet talk around the house
he called her
WOMAN
she called him
mr. hill
that’s the way my mother and father spoke to each other
no lovey
honey this or darling then
now and then he’d call her
peach cobbler
peach pie
only food names
apple tart
strawberry shortcake
but mostly he called her
WOMAN
it was tough growing up in that house
that’s the trouble with being poor
it can beat you down
you live on the edge
it makes you edgy
my folks they’d whup my behind in a minute
my mother she was so brave
god have mercy
she’d put her hand right in the lion’s mouth if she had to
i’d say mama!
she’d say
look out out boy
my father was the same way
i guess the great maker thought
I'M GONNA GIVE YOU A POWERFUL MOTHER
AND POWERFUL FATHER
CAUSE YOU GONNA HAVE TO GO THROUGH
SOME BAD STUFF IN THIS WORLD BOY
__________
one day
my brother thomas
(the one who couldn’t read or write)
came home from school all wet
smelling of urine
they had him in this class for the retarded
only black one in the class
so they pissed all over him
when he came home that day
my father said
what they do to you son?
my poor brother just looked at him with those innocent dark eyes
like maybe he did something wrong
he didn’t talk
he just looked
we didn’t have a telephone or anything
no writing paper
my father says
i’m gonna take care of this
you know those chaplin movies
where chaplin goes out in those baggy pants
walking down that road
(we all had these old clothes
people would give us their hand-me-downs
we were like the local charity case)
so there was my father
starting up that hill in his old baggy pants
carrying a big walking stick
saying
i’m gonna go up there
i’m gonna go to that principals office
i’m gonna go whup the whole school
line em all up
gonna whup everything in sight
and when i get through
they’ll never touch my little tommy again
they ain’t never gonna touch none of my blood
i was so proud of him
the way he walked up that hill
with that stick in his hand
he didn’t go to a phone somewhere
or write a letter
or see his lawyer
or go to the schoolboard
or anything
now
i don’t know what he did
i don’t know what this unbelievable black man
with this big stick in his hand
to this day
i don’t know what my daddy did up there
but after he paid them a visit
we never had any more trouble
. . . . . . .
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