Great-Grandma Martha Matheson worked hard.

She cut trees with a cross-cut saw,

snaked logs off Shewbird Mountain,

plowed fields with a steer, carried water

from the creek, rubbed clothes

on a washboard; blood trickled from raw hands

like geraniums growing beside the log cabin.

She read her Bible, pieced

a Crazy quilt by the fireplace,

hickory crackling like a BB gun.

She choked, smoke shrouded the dark room.

Great-Grandma Martha Matheson placed

a butcher knife under her bed

to cut the pain of childbirth.

The grandfather clock chimed,

her dull eyes gazed through the window

etched with frosty haunting figures.

She rocked on the front porch,

snow sifted into the rutted road,

a horseshoe curving through the cove.

The mountains encroached. She clutched

her shawl with bony fingers,

oblivious to the crying baby.

A snake hissed, stretched across the banister.

She babbled, rebuked dark spirits;

died in the insane asylum.

______________________________________________

Brenda Kay Ledford is a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Clay County, North Carolina. She’s a certified teacher and poet. Her work has appeared in “Pembroke Magazine,” “Asheville Poetry Review,” “Appalachian Heritage,” and other journals. She’s a member of NC Writers’ Network, NC Poetry Society and listed with A DIRECTORY OF AMERICAN POETS AND FICTION WRITERS. Her poetry chapbooks, PATCHWORK MEMORIES and SHEWBIRD MOUNTAIN, received the Paul Green Award from NC Society of Historians. She has a poetry book, SACRED FIRE, upcoming with Finishing Line Press.

We Maka A Good Pasta!

Making homemade pasta is like reading good literature: time-consuming, heavy, savory, frustrating and, ultimately, rewarding. We made our own pasta last night. Today we are happy, plump, and ready to work off some of the excess butter we dripped into our sauce. Let’s get started. Harold Evans recounts the glory years of newspaper reporting, a hotshot journalist is throned at Harper’s Magazine, and Dan Brown, though his books sell millions, sees his narrative formula replicated by an algorithmic push button in Slate. The poetry chapbook The First Risk is discussed in The Collagist, while the good old fuddies at Editor and Publisher try to figure out our current media mess. William Hoffman is remembered in Richmond and eco-documentaries are given new life in Salon. It is a hard, complicated world. And things don’t always turn out right. But a positive attitude and hard work often yield delicious results. Enjoy your pasta. — Kevin Murphy

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