{"id":3002,"date":"2016-11-06T16:57:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T16:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2016-11-06T16:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T16:57:32","slug":"hot-combs-catfish-crumbs-and-bad-men-by-tara-stringfellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/hot-combs-catfish-crumbs-and-bad-men-by-tara-stringfellow\/","title":{"rendered":"hot combs catfish crumbs and bad men by Tara Stringfellow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pic-1-1\"<\/p>\n

hot combs catfish crumbs and bad men<\/p>\n

lent she’d send us out
\ncome back with a basketful she’d call
\nmy sister and i caught black tadpoles
\nwith dark hands thrust into warm bogs
\nseeking, unafraid<\/p>\n

my mother bent over cast iron skillet
\nread entrails in the hot oil
\nmen will fail you more than the Lord
\nshe swung a rosary over the stove
\nin a pendulum swinging north<\/p>\n

my sister collected hair thick as a nest
\nfrom all the old combs in the house
\nburied it deep in red clay
\ndaddy will come back she chanted<\/p>\n

God can stay asleep
\nthese women in my life are magic enuff<\/p>\n

Originally appeared in Jet Fuel<\/em><\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

tmstringfellow (Tara Stringfellow) is a poet and an attorney living in Chicago, originally from Memphis, Tennessee and Okinawa, Japan. SThird World Press published her first collection of poetry entitled More than Dancing in 2008. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Transitions Magazine, Apogee Journal, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, decomp: a literary magazine, Voice and Vision: An African American Literary Magazine, Prompt, and North by Northwestern.<\/em> Currently, the author is an MFA Candidate for both poetry and prose at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

tmstringfellow (Tara Stringfellow) is a poet and an attorney living in Chicago, originally from Memphis, Tennessee and Okinawa, Japan. SThird World Press published her first collection of poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t