Locomotion

“But when Miss Edna’s voice comes on, the ideas in my

head go out like a candle and all you see left is this little

string of smoke that disappears real quick

before I even have a chance to find out

what it’s trying to say.”

Lonnie explains that he’s writing his story as a “Poem Book.” Sometimes, when Miss Edna’s voice (his foster mother) tells him to be quiet, his ideas slip away. He uses a simile to compare this feeling to a candle going out and being left with only a wisp of smoke because he feels that he can’t find the words to articulate what he wants. They slip through his grasp much like smoke slips through his fingers.

“Was I ever your baby, Mama?

and Mama looked at me all warm and smiley.

You still are, she said.

Then she went back in the kitchen.

I felt safe then.

I held Lili tighter.”

This memory recounts how when Lonnie was young, he held his sister and asked his mother this question. This is a significant memory for Lonnie because it demonstrates a moment of love and a feeling of comfort and safety, feelings he has been lacking since his parents’ deaths. This memory comforts him.

“And for those few seconds, Mama’s alive

again.

And I’m remembering

all kinds of good things about her like

the way she laughed at my jokes

even when they were dumb

and the way she sometimes just grabbed me

and hugged me before

I had the chance to get away.”

When Lonnie inhales the scent of honeysuckle talc powder, what his mom used to smell like, memories flood back to him. He feels her presence as if she were still alive, and this comforts him. The fact that “again” is its own line draws attention to the idea that memories, like the scent, repeatedly help him cope and feel as though his family is still with him.