Yvonne Green
Bivi
Bivi had a round white face,
and a reputation for being tough.
Her shiny nose dripped.
She was fat and shuffled,
she even had fat feet,
stuffed into her shoes.
She moved about the kitchen
without losing her temper.
She could do lots of things we couldn’t,
like, she kept a live fish in the bath
after she bought it on Friday
and then killed it dead.
She offended people in her family
and terrified them with one look.
But my Dad, and her other surviving son,
softly called her maman.
Sometimes her eyes looked nowhere
and her face got thin and even whiter.
If she saw me noticing,
she put a stop to that.
and a reputation for being tough.
Her shiny nose dripped.
She was fat and shuffled,
she even had fat feet,
stuffed into her shoes.
She moved about the kitchen
without losing her temper.
She could do lots of things we couldn’t,
like, she kept a live fish in the bath
after she bought it on Friday
and then killed it dead.
She offended people in her family
and terrified them with one look.
But my Dad, and her other surviving son,
softly called her maman.
Sometimes her eyes looked nowhere
and her face got thin and even whiter.
If she saw me noticing,
she put a stop to that.
Page(s) 56
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