#granddaddy
My great grandaddy was a farmer
He was set in his ways
My great grandma said he was a charmer
Always jealous of Edie May
He went on a date with Edie
Way back in 1908
He swore it was only one date
But grandma brings it up each day
I remember asking grandaddy
'What's the box of corn cobs for'
That were sitting in the outhouse
Stacked neatly on the floor
Never ask what the corn cobs are for
I stayed with them for a summer
Back when I was nine or ten
A feather bed was where I slumbered
Photos of ancestors scared me to death
They never smiled or seemed happy
In the framed pictures around the bed
I thought they were watching me
As I laid down to rest my head
Dancing corn cobs haunted my dreams
Grandaddy smoked a homemade pipe
With tobacco he grew from scratch
Told stories of how his great grandaddy
Crossed the ocean on a wooden craft
We rode his tractor across the hills
Rounding up cattle and mended fences
Grandma was in the barn getting milk
Oh how I loved her buttermilk biscuits
I couldn't eat corn on the cob she fixed us
They never owned a television set
No air conditioning could be found
So I caught craw dad's in the creek
My splashing was the only sound
I went back and can't hold it anymore
It's been a few days and I have to go
I stood up and walked out the door
I'd better hurry and not move so slow
Don't ask me what the corn cobs were for
Dec 23, 2019
Dec 23, 2019 at 11:48 PM UTC
I still talk about you in present tense -
like I could still feel your heartbeat
under my fingertips
Oct 2, 2015
Oct 2, 2015 at 2:37 AM UTC