I WAS ITA
During one of the thunderstorms
that I loved for as long as I can remember,
I scratched my name with a hairpin
on the knotty pine of the outhouse:
ITILIA AUGUSTA.
I was comely in my bare feet
and always had long, brown hair,
pinned up like a decent girl should
except at night.
At age thirteen I married
the General. I let my hair
fall down around my trunk,
and limbs held mine and I was scared.
Then the babies came fast and hard,
and the labor pains just seemed
to pick up about where they left off.
My body would pitch and heave again,
and my forehead, damp as a cloud
would furrow and I’d push. And after
I emptied my contents, I’d clean up
the mess, and go outside among
the bluebells to plant another row
of spring peas.
After the namesakes were used up,
I just started thinking up rhymes.
I gave birth to...
John and Paul and Arnett and Garnett,
Virginia and Itilia Rose,
Velma and Wilma and Zelma,
Tommy and Dicky, and Jimmy,
Ronny and Cynthia, Glenn,
and General Junior, and Les.
Then, only in the night could I
stand alone among the hollyhocks
and stare at the moon,
waxing and waning, as I walked
to my own privy, where the wood
seats with rows of small holes , made smooth
by the General’s hands, were radiant
with the work of children’s bottoms.
And on some summer evenings
I’d remove those pins that hurt my head,
and lay them in a pile on that
smooth commode, and step outside,
silently, mud and plantain between my toes,
and stand in the rain.
When all of those children left home, Ita bought herself a little Corvair, and told my grandpa that he could have his turn babysitting their last daughter, who was disabled. She'd jump in that car every single day and go fishing by herself, always catching quite a haul. My grandfather nicknamed her, "ItaGo."
My grandmother died at age 86, phone in hand, mid-sentence, while watching her "stories" on television. In the photo below she was 85, and was scolding me, "Cody Su, (Susannah), don't you take that picture!" My friend Timmy had the photo enlarged to poster size for me, and it has a place of honor in my living room. I think I see a bit of resemblance...
Ita and Me
