I see my aunt, Josephine Coward
She sits at the piano with her back straight
The lovely thin fingers of her hands moving quickly
Back and forth against the white keys
She sings while she plays the song “Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names”

Her beautiful voice rising and falling
Her shoulders moving up and down
Her head moving from side to side

When she finishes her song
She smiles a big smile
Her eyes wide and bright
I ask her to name those places
And her smile grows as she says gently
“They all begin with you”

*

Roma Richardson was born in Trinidad and came to the United States in 1987. She is a student at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Adult Learning Center, where Winsome Pryce-Cortes is the site manager. Roma Richardson writes, “I am a mother of 11 children, seven girls and four boys. I love writing poetry.”