Two Poems After Aaron Siskind, by LaVonne France

Mother and Son (from the project, The Most Crowded Block), photography by Aaron Siskind (USA) 1940

Don’t Look ‘Em in the Eye 
 
My mother, arms akimbo, 
one elbow, the tip of a sharp triangle
angles down to her hand, resting
indignant on her curved cocked hip.
 
One bowed, black, kid pump 
inches from tapping out her
aggravation. The newspaper tucked 
unnoticed in her arm’s crook.
 
Secrets slipped stumbling, as I pet
my wire puppy, “I’m not afraid
of the dark.” Accidentally plunk,
“I never wet the bed.”, into 
shimmering silence.
 
All eyes are on me
I gaze with trepidation into 
the distance. My hands pick 
distracted at my found
watchdog collected as I
 
skipped alongside my mother, 
short pants catching the still 
July ruffle created 
by my swinging arms.
 
The air vibrates disapproval.
In the window with the sign, 
the landlady looks on.
 
Without looking, I see her look
Hear the suck of my mother’s teeth.
 
Wait – for the moment when 
the hand on hip darts out, 
snatches my hand, 
tugs me down the street
leaving the crumpled paper
and my precious puppy dog
Below the abandoned window.

​**

Mother and Son
 
In predawn wakefulness,
the distant hum of Harlem drifts
through the barred open window.
Already dressed in funeral black, 
eyes dry, head down, I sit 
in the vacant living room.
 
My mother’s strut shimmers 
in the photo. Her stance 
familiar, her akimbo arms, 
her hand resting indignant on 
her curved cocked hip. The bowed 
black kid pump inches from
tapping out her aggravation.
 
She is young, 
not greyed and worn 
Like the furniture around me.  
Tension, I don’t remember, emanates 
in black and white. 
 
I feel the warmth of my hand
in hers. Skipping along,
I glowed – 
Her vibrance, coursing 
like Oshun’s rivers.
 
Every day at daybreak, she rose, fierce, 
challenging the day, blowing her steel into me.
Enduring the tales, I wove over the
unnoticed wash and piecework that
littered our furnished rooms.

LaVonne France 

LaVonne France is working on emerging as a poet. Her poetry appeared in the National Library of Poetry Anthologies, Between the Raindrops, and The Best Poems of the ‘90s. As an African American female, her poetry focuses on love, loss, family, and racism. LaVonne is a retired Chemist, Forensic Toxicologist, and Pharmaceutical Project Manager. Her love of poetic language was cultivated at an early age.