BLACK FRIDAY They say it’s darkest before dawn but it don’t seem that way Mama sits at table but this time without coffee and cigarette I don’t hear her coughing or wheezing It’s clear she’s gettin’ better I call the undertaker and cancel her funeral It’s lighter now but still dark Saturday after Black Friday-- the one following Thanksgiving not the good one before Easter I got some letters to mail but before I do, I hug her for the longest time Death has given me back my mama and I can’t let go Copyright 2024 Carl Stilwell
Carl Stilwell (aka CaLoki) was born during the depression in Oklahoma and came to California in 1959 and has lived here ever since. He is a retired teacher who taught for over 30 years in the
Los Angeles Unified school District and has published poems in Altadena Poetry
Review, Blue Collar Review, Four Feather’s Press, Lummox, Pearl, Prism, Revolutionary
Poets Brigade–Los Angeles, Rise Up, Sequoyah Cherokee River Jornal, The Sparring
Artists.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
