Untitled Nebraska Poem


Mama said that
during the depression they
were happy to put
lard on their bread as opposed to
butter and flour sack dresses didn't
itch if you used plenty of
vaseline.
And it was a greasy time breeding
greasy people and
in the fifties they were drunk all the time,
Mama said.
Everybody was.
And you did it with anyone
you pleased because
there was nothing to fill the
need, Mama said, in this
Nebraska.
In these fields.
So you married a black man,
liking to think that he was making you
cosmopolitan
with every stroke.
And you bore children out of confusion and
you still got drunk all the time,
Mama said. In
this Nebraska. In this
Nebraska.
In these fields.

Juli Yancy