My Mother's Greens - A Foodways Poem by Christopher D. Sims

My mother's greens
are soulful songs, 
sonnets, a promise
to future generations
who need nutrition,
nurturing, listening,
empowerment.

My mother's greens
have raised generations;
have impacted lonely lives
who did not have food
or love to go home to.

My mother's greens 
are a guitar strum,
a sad man's hum,
African drums 
thumping, pumping,
pulsating! 

My mother's greens
are magical. The voodoo
in her fingers are from
Bluff City Arkansas where
images and stories of my
great-grandpa 

are threaded into
our conversations
after dinnertime. 

My mother's greens are
grooves, electric, symphonic,
bionic - a tonic for healing.
When she cooks them she's
revealing the Black excellence
of Black cooking.

My mother's greens is 
Black love, is Black genius,
is a Black phenomenon, is
Black strength, emotion, 
drive, dedication, commitment,
continuous,

is of the Mother continent,
is savvy, is beautiful, is beyond

what you find in easily digestible 
American cookbooks that lack
a people's story.

My mother's greens raised me,
gave me all of what I have needed
to become me, to be me. To be me.

And for her greens, and for what 
she means to me, I am so grateful.