Hello Friends —
Today's poem comes from Elizabeth Alexander's 1990 collection The Venus Hottentot — and from a long lineage of poems that incorporate quotes, scraps, excerpts from other works.
The Dirt-Eaters
"Southern Tradition of Eating Dirt Shows Signs of Waning"
—headline, New York Times, 2/14/84
tra
dition
wanes
I read
from North
ern South:
D.C.
Never ate
dirt
but I lay
on Great-
grandma's
grave
when I
was small.
"Most cultures
have passed
through
a phase
of earth-
eating
most pre
valent today
among
rural
Southern
black
women."
Geo
phagy:
the practice
of eating
earthy matter
esp. clay
or chalk.
(Shoe-
boxed dirt
shipped North
to kin)
The gos
sips said
that my great-
grand
ma got real
pale when she
was preg
nant:
"Musta ate
chalk,
Musta ate
starch, cuz
why else
did her
babies
look
so white?"
The Ex
pert: "In ano
ther gener
ation I
sus
pect it will dis
appear al
together."
Miss Fannie Glass
of Creuger, Miss.:
"I wish
I had
some dirt
right now."
Her smile
famili
ar as the
smell
of
dirt.
Labels: NPM