Big Mid-Western German Girls
My Scandinavian friends
don’t understand
us.
Size 11 feet
no one under 175
weight spread out
broad shoulders.
No saunas for us---
we sweat without it,
winter cold
grandma, in just her housecoat,
grandpas big boots untied
putting out bird seed
in the feeder
for those that remain.
Wine made in basements for holidays,
but drink beer
unless medicine needed
whiskey in a small jelly glass.
Workers and drinkers,
Loud, hard laughs, face red
music playing
self taught musicians
crowded together in small houses
Saturday night,
Sunday morning coming soon.
Lutheran or Catholic
doesn’t matter,
raised the same
between brick and mortar----
prattled with discipline.
Big Mid-Western German Girls stand a foot taller in church
slump at dances,
work hard in fields,
in homes with husbands and babies
so next generations can have it better.
Looking at those like myself in grandma’s photo box
black and white likeness shifting between my fingers
I imagine my kind’s past
and try to shape our future.
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