Locomotion Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t always get along but
she’s all I got right now when Miss Edna turns
to me with the biggest smile I seen in a long time
and says My Rodney is coming for Easter
My Rodney is bringing himself on home for a while
Then she’s swish-swishing off again with me
just standing there feeling the relief lift me up and
set me right back down in Miss Edna’s kitchen again.

BIRTH
    When I was born I didn’t even
weigh four pounds, Mama used to tell me.
See this chicken I’m about to cut up and fry?
You were even smaller than it. Doctors said
there’s a little bit we can do but mostly you
have to hope hard
and pray.
Mama cut the wing off the chicken, rinsed
it under the faucet, patted it dry—real gentle
like she was deep remembering.
So I hoped and prayed and sat by that tiny
baby every hour of every day for weeks
and more weeks. Doctors said it’s his lungs,
they’re just not ready for the world yet. Can’t
take a breath in. Can’t let one out. So I breathed
for you, trying to show you how, I
prayed to those lungs, Mama said. Grow!
The chicken was cut up, spiced up, dipped
in flour and ready to fry. Mama touched each piece
still real gentle before she slipped it into the hot
oil. Then you were four pounds, five pounds, six pounds
bigger than this chicken. My big little baby boy
not even two months old and already
a survivor.

LILI’S NEW MAMA’S HOUSE
    The #52 bus takes a long time coming and even though
it’s the first day of spring it’s still a little cold so when
the #69 comes real fast, I think That’s God. And when
the heat’s turned up real high inside the bus and I
ain’t shivering no more, I think That’s God too.
    Â 
    And then I’m walking the blocks to Lili’s new mama’s
house and when I get there, I see Lili standing at the
window waving and grinning and I think
There’s God.
    Lili’s new mama lives on a pretty block with trees and
brownstone houses that all look alike so if you don’t
know the address you end up knocking on a stranger’s
door even if you been there a couple of times before.
Now I know Lili’s mama’s house is the one with yellow
curtains on the second floor and, most times, with Lili
in the window.
    Â 
    We sit in the living room. It smells like lemon and Lili
says, “That’s what we clean the floor with.” The floors
are made of wood and there’s pretty rugs in different
spots. Not a whole lot of furniture but enough to find
a nice place to sit. I don’t lean back though cause Lili’s
new mama will give me a look. There’s chocolate chip
cookies and two glasses of milk on the coffee table.
I take one cookie and eat it real slow even though I
want to take a whole bunch at one time. Then I take
a little sip of milk and make sure to set my glass back
down on the coaster thing ’cause I know Lili’s new
mama is watching me from the kitchen. There’s bright
sun coming in through the big windows and the house
is like this yellow-gold color and warm. Even though
Lili’s new mama doesn’t like me, I’m glad that my sister
has such a nice place to sleep at night. And I’m glad
she has a nice room to sit in and eat chocolate chip
cookies and drink milk outa blue glasses that make
you think of nights up on the roof in the summertime.
    Â 
    God’s in this room, I whisper to Lili.
She looks at me a minute without saying anything.
Then she smiles.
God is everywhere, I say.
    Â 
    And with the sun coming in the room that way
and my sister smiling so big and the plate
of cookies there if you want them, just take one
at a time and chew it slow
I feel Him, right there beside us.

CHURCH
    On Sundays, the preacher gives everyone a chance
to repent their sins. Miss Edna makes me go
    Â 

to church. She wears a bright hat
I wear my suit. Babies dress in lace.
    Â 
    Girls my age, some pretty, some not so
pretty. Old ladies and