Debra Shirley has poetry in MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry. Her short children�s play, A Case of Good Scents, was included in the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region. Her latest children�s book, Best Friend on Wheels, is to be published by Albert Whitman & Company in the spring of 2008.
Grand Daddy
Don't you set none a that watered-up blue-john milk
you done bought at the Foodland afront a me, hear?
None a that margie-butter neither. They ain't got
no taste to 'em, no taste a tall. All you kin git me
to drank is Mae Shirley's fresh sweetmilk. And
her buttermilk.. Aaaw, I like her buttermilk, now.
They always atryin to scare us off a raw milk,
sayin it'll make ye sick. I've drunk raw milk all
my life and it ain't never made me sick. They just
atryin to git ye to spend yer dollar at the Foodland.
They've all but rurned every little man in the county.
Reeves Lumber run out Dwight Holcomb's saw
mill. County shut down Effie's Café—said ye
can't run a resternt outa your own house even though
she's been arunnin hern fer damn near thirty year.
And you kin forgit findin a jar a homemade
sorghum syrup within a hunnerd mile a here.
Look here. See that pinecone design pressed into the
top a that butter? That's Mae's butter mold. Better
try some on one a Mamma's biscuits. We'll git you
offa that margie-butter yet. Fore it makes ye sick.
Debra Shirley has poetry in MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry. Her short children�s play, A Case of Good Scents, was included in the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region. Her latest children�s book, Best Friend on Wheels, is to be published by Albert Whitman & Company in the spring of 2008.