Blessed, and: From a Wrinkle

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• Blessed, and: From a Wrinkle
• E.J. Wade (bio)

BLESSED

She considers herself blessedthat she still has a job whenso many people in our neighborhoodhave none.

Rising in the morning before we wake,she bakes biscuits, fries salt pork,and sits out butter and canned preservesatop the oil-clothed tabletop her daddy made,her soul sorrowful at the thought of not sharingthe breakfast she has made for us, with us.

Placing a kiss on each of our heads before closingthe door behind her, she hums a mournful hymnfrom someplace deep in her belly.

She considers herself blessedthat she is able to walk to workusing her own two feet, saving the $2.00 bus fareshe tucks away in the rusted Maxwell House coffee canconcealed beneath the gingham headscarfat the bottom of the midnight-blue overnight caseburied in the back of the closet.

It is the nest egg, our emergency money,payment to the Insurance Manwho visits every third Saturday of the monthlike clockwork to collect paymentfor the Life Insurance Policy.She hopes she will be blessed,never to have to use it. [End Page 123]

She considers herself blessed that she has inheritedthe constitution of her mother and the fearlessnessof her mother before her but smart enoughto know her place, and wise enoughto not get above her raisin.

Her head lowered; she places her pridein the pocket of her apron for safe keeping,her eyes focused on the peripheral.She waits for permission to breathe,think,speak.

She considers herself blessedthat she still has a job whenso many people in our neighborhoodhave none. [End Page 124]

FROM A WRINKLE

from a wrinkle a profoundhistorical memoryrises high above the mountains of blue ridge

a cobalt triumph sky counteracts the sun laced in saffron threads and cumulus clouds

the smell of Appalachian pine and oak trees metaphorically rich benevolent and timelessrecord a sacred narrativetattooed on bark, branch, and ancient trunk

the earth copper warmlush and greenswaddled in gossamer mistlies still and unbroken

red dust road intrudes on the futurehaunting my footprintwhilefragmented symbols of translationformidable adversariescovet my narrativewithout my permission [End Page 125]

E.J. Wade

E. J. WADE is poet whose work has been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Women Speak (Vols. 8 & 9), New Ohio Review, and Salvation South. Literary editor for the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, she is a three-time Pushcart Award nominee. Wade is pursuing a doctorate of Disability and Equity in Education from National Louis University focusing on the silencing, exclusion, and invisibility of African American Women with disabilities. She holds an M.A. in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University and an M.A. in Creative Media Practices from the University of The West of Scotland.

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