by Erren Geraud Kelly
We hold hands in a prayer
Circle before and after games
Sometimes, I make strikes
Others, gutter balls
My mom limps and with her one good hand
Wins a game
Aunt Cleotha thinks the immigrants
Should learn English, if they are going
To live in America
She’s in the 175 club
Me and Aunt Irma talk about the TV show
“Desperate Housewives,”
When she’s not picking up spares
The trailer park by her house
Is full of Katrina victims
Irma also got two strikes in a row
The brotha bowling beside me
Hits strikes every time
Erren Geraud Kelly is a poet based in New York City, by way of Louisiana, by way of Maine, by way of California and so on. He has been writing for 21 years and has over three dozen publications in print and online in such publications as Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, and Poetry Magazine(online). His most recent publication was in In Our Own Words, a Generation X poetry anthology; he was also published in other anthologies such as Fertile Ground and Beyond The Frontier.
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