I membah’s de time when mah mammy wah alive,
I wah a small chile
recorded as far back as 900 AD
all us chilluns wah playin’ in de ya’d one night
all a sudden mammy cum to de do’ all a’sited
with Sun in Scorpio, arrogant Leo roars a meteor burst
“cum in heah dis minnit” she say, “Jes look up at what is ahappenin’”
bless yo’ life honey
earth passes through the meteoroid stream
de sta’s wah fallin’ jes’ lak rain”
Mammy wah tebble skeered but we chillun wa’nt afeard
but mammy say evah time a stah’ fall, somebuddy gonna’ die
240,000 fall over nine hours in the storm of 1833
ebathin’ wah jes’ as bright as day
a Milky Way glaze
yo’ cudda pick a pin up
of comet particles
yo’ know de sta’s don’ shine as bright as dey did back den
I wondah wy dey don’
dey jes’ don’ shine as bright
wa’nt long afoah dey took mah mammy away
and I wah lef’ alone
Sarah Gudger, 121, Federal Writer's Project, United States Work Projects Administration (USWPA)
Cheri VandenHeuvel is an actor by trade and poet by calling. She graduated from The University of Detroit with B.F.A. in performance and received an M.F.A. from The University of Missouri-Kansas City and is enrolled in the UCLA Creative Writing Certificate program. She’s currently writing a play that is poetic exploration of the Middle Passage of the transatlantic slave trade. Cheri is an award-winning stage actress in Los Angeles and alumnus of The Second City-Detroit Mainstage where she taught, wrote, and performed sketch comedy. She is a member of the Glorious Ladies of Puppetry who recently performed in San Francisco’s Sketchfest with the Glorious Ladies of the Groundlings and is rehearsing with the Jim Henson Puppet Up company.
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