Let Yourself Go

Corrina hated picking grapes
and tying up their vines

but there was no other way
to mine silver from sand

dimes quarters half-dollars
never silver dollar bonanzas

to stash away in a cup
with no handle

Corrina wanted to dance
Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers style

When you hear that
hot marimba
loosen up and hit the timber
let yourself go

She found an old pair
of tap shoes at Goodwill
and wore holes in
Aunt Eulia's Congoleum rug

we could hear her tapping
out of the house
down the road forever
toward San Francisco

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.