What Southern Women Know

For Marians Prompt on Real Toads for Day Seven of NAPOWRIMO  BTW. I am a southern woman and a debutante.

What Southern Women Know
They know if you used instant grits instead of stoneground grits
for your Sunday buffet.
They know where you are from by the way you say y’all.
They know where you were a deb and the year.

Also, they say in a sweet low voice, Bless your heart.
Only the true southern woman knows
whether it is meant in the nicest way or
if you are really saying…fuck you.

debutante ball from my hometown, Durham, NC

The Southern Wind

In Honor of Walt Whitman’s birthday and his poem The Song of Myself – a song of myself for Tuesday Platform at Real Toads.

 

Eno River – public doman

The Southern Wind
I am a southern woman born and bred.
Compared to my Yankee cousin I move….
Like a sloth. Which is cool by me.
I like to dawdle behind and look at the overlooked things –
The tiny flowers hidden in the grass
or the acorn still attached to the branch
wrenched by the wind from the oak
or the small yellow butterfly
drinking from the honeysuckle.
But I am also the dragon tea set –
two of the cups cracked and mended with gold.
I am the Smokie Mountains covered in mist
And I am also Fuji covered in clouds.
Peaches warmed by the sun are my skin.
One day my ashes will be scattered
into the South Wind –
Minamikaze –
Blown across the red dirt fields –
Blown across the slow moving Eno River
Blown into the ocean, The Crystal Coast
Blown back home

Public Domain, Crystal Coast NC

Saturday Afternoon: Boredom Destroyed

He sat on the steps of the back porch.
He leaned back, looking out over
The gravel garden and nishikigoi pond.
Clouds drifted listlessly in the summer blue sky.
He sighed, deeply and long.

The woman sat beside him.
Why so serious Watashi no saiai?
Without looking at her, he said,
I…..am…..bored.
She gave a low chuckle.

Well honey, we don’t have any crowder peas you can shell,
Or any grass for you to mow,
Or any windows that need to be washed.
We haven’t been invited to any pig pickin’s
And we don’t have a crick to go skinny dippin’ in.

He imitated her drawl – perfectly.
So what are you proposin’ darlin’?
She said, follow me. She stood and held her hand out.
You aren’t gonna whomp me with my sword, are you?
His eyes mischievously glinted.

She laughed. Honey love, I got better plans.
Already I am not bored. A southern woman
With a Japanese soul is never boring, he said.
She led him inside and upstairs.
She looked up at him and winked.

In their bedroom, she went to
A wooden box made of cherry wood.
She opened the box and pulled out
A small bundle wrapped in an old linen towel.
Get naked and run a tub of hot water, sir.

Add some bubbly stuff to it and get in.
And now I am mystified he said.
He soaked and watched as she unwrapped
An old, shining straight razor and a leather strop.
Back and forth she honed the razor.

She smiled. Relax. You’re gonna love this.
I gair-on-tee it. She sat behind him
On the back edge of the tub, with his head back between her knees
and wrapped his face in a hot wet washcloth.
Unable to see, he heard her mixing something in a cup.

And then he smelled the sweet smell
Of sandalwood shaving soap.
She tilted his head back and gazed down at him.
She unwrapped the cloth and gently
Began to apply the soap to his face with a soft brush.

He atared up at her. His brown almond eyes
Tender at the intent look in her round brown eyes.
Now buster, you’d best be still.
And with easy, deft strokes, she shaved him,
Wiped his face and applied old fashioned bay rum.

He finished his bath and stepped out.
She dried him off and handed him a clean tee shirt and shorts.
He smoothed his face with his hands.
I am no longer bored…and you are really good.
She grinned up at him, yes, I am.

And sashayed out of the room.

A Splendiferous Galaxy of Awards…..Gratitude flows

 

You registered on WordPress.com 1 years ago!  Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging!

 

Okay, this isn’t an award.  it is a computer generated notice.  They haven’t fresh pressed me so they don’t know I am doing good blogging.  .

HOWEVER (ahem)  it is all of you out there who have read my blog, liked, commented…..it is all of you out there in Blogland that share yourselves with others, that give us some of our best moments, that inspire us, make us weep, make us laugh and chortle with delight, inform us, influence us…….and in a large part, that “us” is me.  Yours truly……the very imperfect cherry blossom who strives to be the perfect cherry blossom.   When I started blogging, I wasn’t sure what to expect or where I was going.  Somehow, KanzenSakura has taken a life of her own and has skipped merrily along, sometimes with me, sometimes, apparently when successful, without.

A few weeks ago, a meteor shower of nominations lit my world.  Alas, pneumonia laid me low and so I am later that I wish to be at thanking those shining lights who nominated me.  Here is the amazing part:  no rules.  No link backs, no answering questions……just those precious souls saying, “Here is a garden of awards.  Pick yourself a bouquet.  I know you deserve them all but pick the ones that make your bouquet as special as you.”

So being a good (sometimes, more often than not, naughty) southern girl, I am doing as my mama taught me years ago.  “When folks are nice to you, say Thank You.  and oh yes, pass it along.”

Thank you to:

http://theseeker57.wordpress.com

http://transcendingbordersblog.wordpress.com

http://ajaytao2010.wordpress.com

I’m posting the awards I chose.  I am going to mentally go out to Oklahoma and wander around http://el34ax7.wordpress.com/  mom’s pasture and cogitate on this a bit.  I’m going to share.  I may even wander around the lovely land of http://davidemeron.com/ and his amazing sonnets, or scoot around Japan compliments of http://japankharma.wordpress.com/

But wherever I go in my thoughts, I’m going to share these awards in the same spirit as they were given.  I know some of the folks I choose will not accept and that is fine, just you all go visit their site anyway, okay?

Thank you all again.  Words in this case, are insufficient.  I send you all hugs from my heart.

 

So……here is the Splendiferous Bouquet of Awards – Yowzer Y’all…..