Poet’s Corner

0

By Nancy Slonim Aronie

For my sister Grandma was the Red Cross
I had no such first aid station except for her, my older sis
she told me everything
which I passed on
to my fellow four-year-olds
with perhaps a fact or two askew
OK so maybe the penis didn’t go into the stomach
and maybe it wasn’t two years that it took for infants to come out
but I had the basics down
she took me round
to every nook and cranny
in the neighborhood
especially the places
our parents forbade
she introduced me to faces
I never would have seen
brown and black and one grown-up smaller than even me
she opened every door
to every shade and possibility she brought these stragglers home
she was a living Shakespeare poem
because she had some kind of extra sight
she saw thru costumes
and façades
and taught me not to overlook
a single soul
that everyone was made of gold some tarnished
but underneath
if you loved enough
you could find the shiny parts
it was her heart that
was my first aid kit

Nancy Slonim Aronie is an author, facilitator of the Chilmark Writing Workshops, and a columnist for the M.V. Times. Her most recent book, “Memoir as Medicine: The Healing Power of Writing Your Messy, Imperfect, Unruly (but Gorgeously Yours) Life Story,” was published in March 2022.

Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to Poet’s Corner curator Laura Roosevelt at ldroosevelt@gmail.com