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Every southern girl knows sea-wind and sea-spray
can age a girl if she's not careful,
admit I'm prone to imitate star-shaped pennywort
and trumpeted morning glory anchoring themselves beachside
venerating the sun.
Often seek salve for heated skin mid-afternoon,
consider sweet gum, black tupelo, oak;
find comfort beneath alabaster ornamentals and waxy leaves
flaunting my best Scarlet O'Hara
but tan lines and freckles are dead give-aways
despite wide-brimmed straw hat and magnolia's shade
not to mention my southern drawl's non-existent,
blue eyes aren't cat green,
and honeyed tongue is absent from my DNA.
by Margaret Bednar, April 7, 2018
This is linked with "Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Camera Flash" This was one of two portraits offered for the challenge. Also linked with NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Month (30 Poems in 30 Days).
I'm a transplanted northern girl doing my best here in the south.
10 comments:
Love it,, a wonderful portrait of the "other" Southern woman. I especially like
"honeyed tongue is absent from my DNA." Well done :-)
I'm a transplanted northern girl
doing my best here in the south.
A clear giveaway that you've adapted very well to changing environments and that is not easy! Brilliant word-craft Marge!
Hank
How I LOVE that opening stanza, and your likening self to pennywort. LOL. I so enjoyed this poem, Margaret and recommend that big hat for afternoons. All my life I have resisted hats but I now have to succumb, I cant take the UV rays anymore.
You sound like a southern belle with a delightful twist. Well penned...er, typed.
And I am a born and bred Southern girl. This was a fun take on the pic. The magnolia, but hat, all of it. Being as I have extremely fair skin I have always hidden from the sun as best as I could. I love the beach, especially the Crystal Coast of NC where my ancestors first set foot in the new world.
The lament of a sun-worshipper.. I like your list of natural ingredients and lines and freckles are part of individual beauty.
Ha, when I visitedTexas I felt positively uncouth next to those Southern women! (But they made me welcome anyway.) I was lost in admiration of their honeyed tongues, which they used with such aplomb. But when it comes right down to it, I do best with straight talk. I think I missed some messages because they were so carefully worded.
But alas, I'm with them about the sun – not for beauty but for health. I burn fiercely and never tan, so although I love tropical climates, I learned early not to sunbake.
(By all of which you may gather that your poem totally engaged me, lol.)
Oh I love "honeyed tongue is absent from my DNA." Powerfully written.
and honeyed tongue is absent from my DNA.
LOL
nice one Margaret
much love...
Nicely penned piece throwing up the work needed to blend in...at least until those honey notes don't sing...best be a proud Northerner then ;)
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