Paul Grams

 

My gramma was the meanest lady     ever

lived     scare brother and me right half to death

to hear her     never she hug you lessen you

been good all day     she make you go to be

alone while brother heard the story out

the storybook     and you gon hafta wait

for brother tell you later     find it out

my gramma when she strop us makes us     wait

hands on you ankles while she think how bad

what you don done don hurt she feelings     ever

so often she gon see you run wrong way

through Elma yard cross town     and brother too

sit on the sofa look     at books all day

gramma so mean     we darent even put her in

them fantabulous stories we told     when we kept in

 Paul Grams set out fifty years ago to be a famous writer, never got close, and spent 30 years teaching in the Detroit Public Schools. He has kept writing in the basement all these years.

 

Photo credit:

July KATE GREENAWAY’S ALMANACK FOR 1895. Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/107_3352693/1/107_3352693/cite. Accessed 20 Jan 2017.