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MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE
Mama Cindy’s Ascension:
the family matriarch
​                                                                    
By Felton Eaddy
 
Search the old begonia beds
Past fuchsia azalea blooms
Where she planted new lavender thrift
Border clusters of aloe vera
Listen for her voice among blue birds
No songs whistle Mama Cindy’s name
 
Cries from some children for peach cobbler
More four-layered chocolate cake slices
Others wait for her brown tan biscuits.
Fevers to cool; colds to cure
Sister had a stomach-ache
Fresh ground Indian ‘tato
Sister had a stomach-ache
Garlic, syrup & ginger blend
Babies held and mothers raised
Young brothers molded into men
 
Shiloh’s ushers trained to walk in rhythm
Seek scripture study for Sunday School
Promote the Super Building Fund
Something for the sick and shut-in
Communion and sacrament offerings
Long-coming joyful home-goings
fractured families to tend and mend.
 
No more love from the Fork Community
Handmade quilting circle of elders
On Old Buck Swamp Road
Faded reds, yellows, orange patterns
To mix, magically match stitch for stitch.
 
Walk the back dirt roads of Zion
Streets of Mullins
Sandy shady lanes of Fork
Look, look, look for Lucinda
Yell out from the pine forest
And thick green scuppernong vines
But she is not there
Only her spirit laughs
In the quiet timber of the wind.



  • HOME ISSUE #3
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY AND PROSE
  • BLACK MUSIC PHOTO ESSAY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • VISUAL ART GALLERY
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • Support Merge Literary Magazine
  • ISSUE #2 CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • FEATURED WRITERS AND ARTISTS
  • MERGE LITERARY MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION
  • Mission and Content
  • About US
  • POETRY
  • ESSAYS ARTICLES AND FICTION
  • Multimedia Art Review
  • PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN
  • ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
  • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • ISSUE #1 POLITICAL AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
    • Mission and Content
    • About US
    • POETRY
    • PROSE
    • ART ILLUSTRATION
    • ESSAYS AND PLAY
    • MULTI-MEDIA QUILT REVIEW
    • WRITERS AND ARTISTS BIOS
    • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • Support Merge Literary Magazine