Page 30 - Contrast2007

There's a Run in Grandma's Stocking

Martin Camper

Grandma has a run in her stocking
that goes all the way
to her ankle
to the Chesapeake Bay
that flows uphill
and spills into her frying pan cooking crab cakes,
into her pot boiling over.
Grandma has a run in her stocking
that inches longer
with every step of her dignified gate
as she walks to the store,
to church, to Grandpa's grave.

Grandma has a run in her stocking
because me and my sister,
we wanted to know what it felt like to be women,
we wanted to dress up like ladies,
so we snuck into Grandma's room -
the make-up we could wipe off,
but the perfume got us whipped,
and I caught one of her only pairs of leggings
on a splinter sticking out of the bedpost.
Grandma has a run in her stocking -
we stare at it from the backseat
and compare the nylon mesh
to the blotched skin underneath.

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