Invitations
Invitations
by
Maggie Britton Vaughn
Poet Laureate of Tennessee
The backyard of
the farmhouse,
where loose
chickens scratched
and half-tamed
cats
showed up at
supper time,
was the place
where
Aunt Margaret
and Mama
chose to cry
over their
mother,
who lay
dying
in the darkened
bedroom
of Aunt Martha's
house.
I stood
behind
the back screen
door
and watched them
hold white linen handkerchiefs
to their face
and say words
like,
she's dying.
I wanted so much
to join them,
but a
seven-year-old
was not invited.
It was their
time to grieve.
So I had to be
strong,
not for them,
but for myself.
That night I was
sent
to spend the
night
with neighbors.
Next morning, it
was announced
when I awoke,
that Miss
Gertrude
had died in the
night.
From the bed, I
could hear,
Mama and Aunt
Margaret
when they
arrived
to pick me up.
I heard
neighbors say things like,
She was such a
good women,
and I listened
to them cry
and comfort each
other,
but I stayed in
the bedroom,
for I was not
invited.
That afternoon
my stepfather
took me to the
4th of July picnic
at the Rockvale
Country School.
It had been my
grandmother's wish
that I not miss
the picnic,
so I went to the
party
while others
stayed home
to share the
grief.
That evening I
was taken into
Aunt Martha's
living room
and there I saw
my grandmother,
lying in her
Sunday gray and black dress
with the big
white collar.
Mrs. Lamb told
me
my grandmother
was only sleeping
and I should not
grieve,
for she had gone
to a far better
place
and I would see
her again someday.
The next day
loved ones and visitors
gathered and
they took my grandmother
down the dirt
lane
to the old
family cemetery,
but I was not
invited.
Mama and my
aunts
thought it would
upset me,
so I stayed home
and imagined
what they did
to dead
grandmothers
when they took
them down dirt lanes.
Time passed and
I grew up
and when no one
is looking
I sneak off down
the dirt road
to the cemetery,
pull the old
chain off
the rusty
crooked nail
that holds the
creaky gate
to the leaning
fence post
that holds the
living out
and the dead in.
I stand beside
my grandmother
and I cry.
The invitation
has finally come.
The Light in the Kitchen Window : Poems
by Margaret Britton Vaughn
Our Price: $9.95 + $0.85 special surcharge
Paperback (June 1994)
Iris Pr; ISBN: 0916078353
Also check out the book:
The Rifle
by Gary Paulsen
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback - 105 pages Reprint edition (March 1997)
Laurel Leaf; ISBN: 0440219205