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Ella, In A Square Apron, Along Highway 80 By: Judy Grahn

Published on Nov 18, 2015

Poem created by Judy Grahn

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Ella, In A Square Apron, Along Highway 80

By: Judy Grahn

She's a copperhead waitress, tired and sharp-worded, she hides her bad brown tooth behind a wicked smile, and flicks her ass out of habit, to fend off the pass that passes for affection.

Photo by Andrey Zhukov

She keeps her mind the way men keep a knife--keen to strip the game down to her size. She has a thin spine, swallows her eggs cold, and tells lies.

She slaps a wet rag at the truck drivers if they should complain. She understands the necessity for pain, turns away the smaller tips, out of pride, and keeps a flask under the counter.

Photo by kevin dooley

Once, she shot a lover who misused her child. Before she got out of jail, the courts had pounced and given her child away.

Photo by aresauburn™

Like some isolated lake, her flat blue eyes take care of their own stark bottoms. Her hands are nervous, curled, ready to scrape. The common woman is as common as a rattlesnake.

Biography

  • Judy Grahn was born in Chicago, Illinois 1940
  • Started the Women's Press Collective om 1969
  • She was a well established poet, but went to college
  • Now she works as a professor at the New College of California 
  • While working at the college she helped create the Gay and Lesbian Studeies