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Days
of Daze
By
Dorothy Riggs McCall There
goes Princess Know-It-All, dazed and confused
about
the ways of life,
She
thinks her parents are total squares, boxing her
in
misery and strife.
Finding
complete contentment in the thick gray fog
that
clutters her mind,
She
runs off to grandmas, totally unsuspecting
of
the advice she’ll find.
Sitting
in her rocker, on that old screechy wooden porch
one
red hot summer day,
Clearing
her throat and digging deep in her treasure trunk
of
profound knowledge, these are the words she heard
grandma
say:
“When
you look at me you see an old grandma,
skin
wrinkled like an old brown paper bag,
With
snow-white hair, bones as brittle as antique china
and
a chin that’s startin to sag.
I
done had me some times. I
done seen and done
a
lot of thangs. I
ain’t always been as wise as
I am
these days, you see.
Yes
siree, sho made mistakes, but I learned from’em.
Princess,
come take a trip down the Avenue of Ages
with
me.
Oh,
first we’ll stop at the Teen Genius.
When I was
a
young girl I stopped here I recall.
I
didn’t want to hear my parents.
I
was Miss Know-It-All.
Back
then I didn’t realize that my folks knew what
was
best for me.
I
just wanted to move away, go as far North as
the
eye could see.
Which
takes us to the next stop, College Town.
I
was glad to be here, out from under Momma
and
Daddy’s thumb.
But
after bein here for a few years, I smartened
up
and saw that my ideas about my folks
were
simply dumb.
Baby,
this old woman’s getting tired now.
Our trip
has
taken me back quite a ways.
But I ain’t always been wise, just like you; I
too
had my days of daze.” *
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