Iva
The old ones told stories, snapping beans.
My grandmother's hands with nails like moons.
We shuddered the flies, and our skins drank in the summer,
and I saw her a child in the West Virginia mountains.
And the locusts, who were sometimes crazy, sang
so that if you listened to them on purpose,
it became the deafening buzz of high tension wires.
That day was whole and ripe.
That day was sweet, like the shoepeg corn she would put up. Later.
Her silver cans of snuff were magic, the almanac cryptic.
Her mojo hanging around her like musk.
A witch, but no witch,
just hillbilly, just indian,
like I am witch and no witch.
And she said it was a-gonna rain and she would be right,
and what I remember most would be her perfect hands,
my father's hands,
and the taste of butter.
Font size:
Submitted on May 02, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 2 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFGHCIJKLKMNNC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 757 |
Words | 144 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Iva" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/75804/iva>.
Discuss the poem Iva with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In