Big Muddy

Poem by E Eugene Jones Baldwin + Interview

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Grandma took us by our hands
And walked us to the wide cornfields
Ditches full of water
The August stalks high above us:
Listen.
 
I don’t hear anything, Gram.
(my words fast and so meaningless) 
Grandma whapping me on the head:
Listen.
The stalks bending double
In storm-coming breeze:
 
It is the ocean, my sister says.
Yes girl hear the ocean waves
Summers you kids is islanders
Genie, he Robinson Crusoe
Who am I, Gram? I ain’t no boy—
Pretty gal, reckon you are Wendy.
Who are you, Grandma?