Check out the details of the prompt from Napowrimo.net here: The summary: “Poem about or involving a superhero.”
With the full moon in Scorpio rising, today/tonight was full as well, so I’m a bit late today.
As far as the prompt, most superheroes in popular culture (including the women) target male demographics, so I haven’t been a big fan, but my superheroine comes in a different form–my Polish Grandma and here she is starring in my poem for Day 23.
Grandma K. Saves the Day
Batman, Superman, Catwoman,
Batwoman, Supergirl, Spiderman,
Wonder Woman!
None compare to my Superheroine
Polish Grandma K!
Strength, courage, skill & daring
of superheros times ten!
Born in 1896 to parents just arrived
from Poland on a ship to work
in salt mines & on a dirt poor farm.
Superwoman Grandma, a beautiful
young woman, found a job doing
linens, organdy & lace
for fancy ladies in the nearby town
where she met a handsome man
who wooed her & became his wife.
He traveled to Chicago and Milwaukee
and she stayed home to raise the one,
two, three, four, five babies that she had,
number six still in the womb when he “disappeared.”
Now, that’s another story.
The heroine Grandma K always looked as
fresh as the linens she ironed for her ladies.
The children did as well. When the elders failed,
she sold the trees from off the farm
to keep the land their own,
she cared for elders, sick, and young
with six at home and worked in the
cherry factory. She waitressed at the new hotel.
Thankful for her life, she recited Polish prayers
for the poor, not knowing she was the one
who received the blessings.
Step down, Wonder Woman,
Grandma K saves the day!
Jacquelyn Markham 4/23/2024
Jacquelyn Markham, poet & writer, author of Rainbow Warrior, Finishing Line Press (2023), Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey and China Baby, among other titles.
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