Neely Farm
I climb the worn red kitchen stepstool, take down
the last flask of Mr. Duncan’s finest corn likker,
describe to my grandfather the smell of Georgia earth
and diesel as bulldozers slice verdant pastures and
fertile fields into streets. Thuds, dust clouds as barns,
silos, white-washed fences fall. I want to ask him
if families sold him their home places in order to feed
their families in times of no jobs and bread-lines.
I wipe off the bottle of corn likker, pour a shot,
share it with my grandfather. We call him Mimi.
…..
This is a excerpt from the poem “Neely Farm,” from the book Corn LIkker & Daffodils by Eve Hoffman (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/corn-likker-daffodils-by-eve-hoffman/
Storyteller and poet Eve Hoffman grew up on a Georgia dairy farm. Still seeks dirt roads and Guernsey cream. Her lineage includes a Revolutionary War soldier, a mill owner “hung near to death” by Yankees, a suffragette leader and a grandfather who helped shape the south as chairman of the regional Federal Reserve Bank. She’s been named a provocateur—her personal and political stories not tidily separated. Honored as a Remarkable Woman by her alma mater Smith College. Full-length Memory & Complicity published by Mercer University Press nominated for Georgia Author of the Year. Red Clay and SHE chapbooks and an art/narrative book A Celebration of Healing –twenty-one lives impacted by breast cancer. evehoffmanpoet.com Contact: evehoffmanassistant@gmail.com
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