"Dominoes In July", N.E. Avery

Dominoes in July, In Our own Words, 2010 (print)

“God gave me lemons and ain’t nothin’ sweeter
than this iced lemonade in my glass here!”
“Are you going to play, May’jo, before the good
Lord our savior comes back?”
“You better hush now Merl West Sims,” she said but laughed.
I listened to them talk as I rocked back on my heels
keeping score beneath the cool
shadowed shade of the porch stoop.
The hot hard heat beat on my granny and her sister.
They lifted their glasses—sucking the cold ice dry
when their lemonade was gone and
talked to each other while they played—“Ten stitches in your britches!”
“Put down twenty for the weak side, gran’ baby!”—
I scratched it down with an old pencil.