Cristal Brawley
Response
Home Not Home
By Amy Souza
Inspiration piece
A childhood surrounded by water
Mayflower offspring, Azorean pioneers
I didn’t belong (or did I?) to the city
Of cobblestone streets with
Widow’s walks topping every captain’s home
And a museum dedicated to the mammal
So cherished yet brutalized
There was always a line for donuts
Always a thin blue sky
One cousin owned a shop where I bought
My mother a present
The first with my own money
A miniature cast iron pan, fake antique
Embossed with a man’s silhouette
Maybe a pilgrim – he wore that crazy hat
She used it to hold spoons while she
Cooked from that day on
Until she couldn’t and forty years
Passed, easy as turning a page
When my sister packed the house and
Shipped me boxes and bags to sort through
She included every towel my mother ever owned
But not the pilgrim spoon rest
Its iron coating had faded
And it must have looked like junk
Because no one knew its worth
Except my mother and me
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