Poetry by Shiny✨🩵 "For Willie Kinney"

Dear Readers, 🩵

I have renewed determination to stick to every Friday going forward ... :-)

This week, though, I’m publishing one poem today, one tomorrow, and one on Sunday.

Hope they bring you something. ♥️

Love,
Shiny ✨

For Willie Kinney      May 28 

Today I bit into a watermelon 
and vividly remembered standing with you 
in the fading sunlight behind your barn
at the foot of those Kentucky mountains.

You cut me a massive slice, 
and I had never tasted anything like it. 
I laughed as the juice ran down my chin,
and you said in your thick southern drawl, 
“It don’t get much fresher than that,” 
big grin on your face, 
tall, thin frame in your overalls. 

All those summers, 
I watched you pick herbs,
call them by name,
can them, to heal your family;   
watched the way you watched over
the other people on that mountain. 

I listened to you play bluegrass, 
stared in amazement 
as you beautifully rolled, then smoked 
a cigarette with your own tobacco.

That was holy. 
Holy as your sun-blazed skin, 
your bright blue eyes.

Sadly, there was only one 
piece of watermelon
in the cup of fruit I ate tonight, 
but it sure was good.

Sadly, there was only one of you, Willie, 
but, (I reckon) 
you sure did make it count. 

Willie Kinney (April 27, 1932 - December 28, 2012) | Vanceburg, KY

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