OK so I was always a mama's
boy but no fit I could employ
would dissuade her from taking
the trip to Charlottesville. If the
choice was Father or Mother, she
would be my pick on the train south
watching the mouth of another boy's
mammy in the hotel lobby asking
about our V'ginia lineage.
To hear
the white magnolias wither in that
woman's voice when my ma'am
said, "North, my husband's family
hails from a distant commonwealth—
Massachusetts not Viriginia,"
"I see,"
the woman said quickly, dropping
her flowery drawl as if Lee lost
the Civil War only yesterday.
Karren LaLonde Alenier
From The Anima of Paul Bowles