Publisher's Synopsis
Learning to Love Bessie Smith
took years by all accounts cause
who could love a whiskey voice
lamenting some no-good man
and Aunt Claudia hissing yes
like an untethered balloon
when Sweet her daughter said plenty do
and my mother wouldn't even entertain
the possibility given
how she had no call to trust
any man aiming to separate her
from the family
and I just flat out couldn't understand
what all that weeping was about
while I tried sneaking
a taste of cherry spiked drink
tried listening as Aunt Jennie said
baby, men come on like busses
another stop along by and by
Jennie a little tipsy
filling everybody's cup
until the punch bowl emptied
and my mother eating all the fruit
because she didn't drink when
for a time she was single again
waiting by the side of the road
