In this, the final of five journal entries from Shirley Showalter, Fetzer Vice President of Programs, she shares a poem as an offering to Shirley whose home she helped restore as part of her experience volunteering in New Orleans with the Mennonite Disaster Service.

Mother to Mother

A tribute to the poet Langston Hughes and the Katrina survivor, Shirley

By Shirley H. Showalter

Well, Shirley,

your house on Tricou Street

is almost ready for you.

There are new cabinets in the kitchen,

new shelves in your closets.

new paint on the walls and baseboards.

The windows shine.

The little metal letter box

that was on the fence by the gate?

You’ll find it in the weed-free flowerbed,

rusty and full of holes, but salvaged

for memory’s sake.

Here on my hands and knees

polishing new kitchen tiles,

I imagine you waving goodbye to Houston.

Returning to New Orleans at last, you are climbing

the sturdy new ramp outside this door.

I’ll be back in snowy Michigan by then,

But I leave with you this prayer,

May this kitchen be your ballroom,

this home become your crystal stair.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 am and is filed under Practices in Action, Things to Think About. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.