From the author:
"When I started my MA English program at IUSB, I was not familiar with Julia Kasdorf or Mennonite poetry in general. Bobby Meyer Lee, who had taught at GC but now teaches at IUSB, used her poems as an option for a paper in a graduate class I took, and I was hooked. I wrote a twenty-page paper on Julia Kasdorf’s poem, “St. Francis preaches to the Birds” from her poetry book, Sleeping Preacher. Bobby also recommended A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry, edited by Ann Hostetler. It was an incredible experience to discover and read poetry that I identified with on such a personal level."
Family Frugality
When a Mennonite dies, someone else has to find a use for the empty egg cartons, the drawers crowded with re-straightened twist-ties. . . . Our people saw long years of suffering. Generations later, we’re stocking up, just in case there’s another round of persecution, another bloody theater.
Kirsten Eve Beachy, “Me and the Martyrs[1]”
In line
at Starbucks
guilt grabs
me again.
I’m paying
$3 for
fancy coffee
I could
brew cheaper
at home.
Dad wouldn’t
buy it,
doesn’t drink
it. Says
coffee’s only
cost-effective for
staying awake
while driving.
Vending machine
pretzels also
fill me
with angst.
What if
I need
that squandered
dollar later?
Great grandpa
Jesse brought
home boxes
of overripe
bananas Grandma
choked down.
Aunt Kathy
washes out
plastic baggies.
My mother-in-law
once found
3 forgotten
clementines in
our trash
outside, proudly
returned them.
I add
sugar, taste
the bitter-
sweet flavor
of a
small sin.
___________________
Family Games
Great grandpa
Silvanus
loved
chicken breast
but ate the
dark meat
because
he thought
Susie
liked the
white meat.
Great grandma
Susie
loved
chicken drumsticks
but ate the
white meat
because
she thought
Silvanus
liked the
dark meat.
Aunt
Joy
bought
us all candles
in various
Christmas colors
because
she thought
we could
each pick
our favorite.
Aunt
Carolyn
loves
pink
but makes me
choose first
because
she thinks
I
want the
pink one, too.
I can’t
win
the games
but I’m often
obliged to
play
them.
[1] Beachy, Kristen Eve. “Me and the Martyrs.” Tongue Screws and Testimonies, Ed. Kristen Eve Beachy. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2010. 34-43. Print.