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by
Scott Owens


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My granny didn't know she was serving Appalachia,
fine white diet of biscuits and gravy, potatoes and chicken,
punctuated by tomatoes the color of earth they grew out of,
corn eaten straight off the cob, beans as green as hills in spring.
 
She didn't know the wrinkled globes of cantaloupe
ought to remind her of topography of mountain streams
refusing to flow either straight or smooth, that eating blackberries
was like swallowing the many-lobed words of Southern speech.
 
She didn't know that tasting her fruit cobblers
was just as sweet as mountain air after a four o'clock rain,
or that pecan pie had a taste as deep as any mountain hollow
and like the mountains laid a claim that kept you coming back for more.
 
All she knew was to do as her granny had done. All she knew
was that anytime she called Supper, every chair was always full.
 
© by Scott Owens.
Used with the author's permission.

 

Scott Owens is the author of 20 collections of poetry and the recipient of numerous awards. Professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University and former editor of two poetry journals, he is the founder of Poetry Hickory, a monthly reading series. Scott's newest collection is ‘Round Here: Images from and Near Catawba County. He lives in Hickory, North Carolina, where he owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse and Gallery.Learn more about Scott here.

              


 


Post New Comment:
rtaylor947@aol.com:
I love a good food poem and this one is a meal in itself. "...sweet as mountain air after a four o'clock rain" is an especially evocative line. I can taste it.
Posted 08/19/2012 06:34 PM
marenomitchell:
Yummy salute to the mountains, Scott!
Posted 08/19/2012 12:19 PM
Larry Schug:
I love the rhythm of "beans as green as hills in spring". This poem has the secret ingredient of good poetry to my eyes and ears--texture. Good one, Scott.
Posted 08/19/2012 09:39 AM
phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
Strongly evocative, beautifully rendered. Fine work!
Posted 08/19/2012 07:17 AM
69Dorcas:
The innocence of the area. Lovely and human.
Posted 08/19/2012 06:50 AM
wordsmith:
Delicious!
Posted 08/19/2012 06:41 AM


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