Potlicker Blues
--Calvin Forbes (1945- )
Momma a carrot grows underground
Alone very blind like an island seeing
No other but itself; and it always looks old
Wrinkled, as if its youth had been bitter.
But shame a country girl like you
Thought they grew on trees like oranges.
And you peel carrots like their skin
Were evil: didn’t your Momma teach you nothing?
The old people wanted to boil the bad
Taste away; or at least they thought every-
Thing green and fresh was raw—
To be treated in the same manner as pork.
And maybe overcooked collards explains why
Granny looked so dried out by the time
She was ready for the grave;
Even if she drank only potlicker, and never good
Cornlicker, getting juiced off the vitamins.
Tender vegetables won’t hurt your gums.
And Momma they got frozen greens now;
And you know you can’t buy potlicker at the A&P.
Calvin Forbes, Blue Monday (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University
Press, 1974), p.14.
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