Grandma Never Went to Florida
“The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida.”
– Flannery O’Connor
A passenger in a car that tossed her out,
split her head open, and crushed a fiancé
before “death do us part,”
Grandma never learned to drive.
Later, in a car driven by grandpa
she clutched the car dashboard like a purse
she didn’t want to lose. Her life
a constant caution on the road
that never held grandpa’s eyes
long enough to keep him on the straight and narrow.
Her warnings pushed him in line,
and kept him from going to the grave
in a car wreck, although his face became a road map
rule marked and read for miles.
Lylanne Musselman resides in Indianapolis. She is the host of the Irvington Studio Writer's open mic held in Irvington every 4th Thursday at The Studio School & Gallery. Her chapbook, Prickly Beer & Purple Panties, was published recently by Bacon Tree Press. Lylanne has twice won 2nd place for her poetry in the annual Fountain Square Masterpiece in a Day Competition in Indianapolis.