Day 5 Poetry Challenge: Ten Rules

My grandmother was a woman of deep emotions

but little words.

Perhaps it was the broken English way she spoke,

or the many hours alone in the back room

with her foot-pedal Singer sewing machine,

the dust threads

flying into the stifling Lahaina heat

like a gossamer shroud.

But always, when she spoke, it was about the value

of use, the shame of frivolity

the decadence of wastefulness.

Study hard,

wear clean panties,

no waste

water, paper, fabric, food, money. . .

no make shame, no shame the family, no shame yourself,

be a good girl,

be smart,

no be like the neighbor girl,

clean your ching ching good,

clean your feet before you come in the house

and

marry Japanese.

- Cathy Kanoelani Ikeda 4/5/12

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