Bonnet

I am ten at Grandma’s place
Summer hazy heat shimmers
Grandma is teaching me how to
Pick green beans from her back
Yard garden by using my thumb
To snap off the pods collecting
A passel for supper which is
Not so easy at ten as I look
At Grandma’s sunbonnet
That looks so much like
A covered wagon tarp
Extending far in front
And back over her
Neck protecting
Against the sun
Made of cotton
Scraps of this
Or that and
I wonder if
She uses
It in the
Winter
As a
Tea cozy.
Grandma lives
To near a hundred
She saw society change
In more ways than I can imagine
From the 1880s to the 1970s
Always with a good humor
Patience and a practical
Approach having had
Eleven children plus
Tries she knew a
Bit about how to
Pick vegetables
One at a time
With bonnet
Gingham
Kids and
Grand-
Kids
More than
A passel and
Her stock in trade
Was always love
Of family first
Self second
E PLURIBUS UNUM
Diamond hard
Facets of
Light.