My mama got a sugarcane smile
Southern sweetened iced tea hint
of lemon in her kiss—my mama
loved me like home cooked meals

Slow roasted conversations left overs
in the corners of my mind like I remember
she gave me Cheese Curls like teething rings
to place between my gums and satisfy crying

She Twizzler twisted my thick hair
with globs of blue magic—make me Sunday-fresh
My skin hot fudge, she caramel at best
My mama—corn bread and cola,

Candied yams and cabbage, banana pudding and cobbler
Food so good on the taste buds — make her feet swell
She wobble sometimes like pendulums
on grandma’s clock that do tell time.

Learned it from all the times great gran
was cooking for church’s second service
Learned to praise God through baked
mac and cheese and pray my daddy come home

from the service, but he dead and gone now
and my mama in combat mode — her body
covered with infections like chocolate coated
candy. Sugar level–501–which is to say
she got stroke caught in between her teeth

A1C, 14, veins constricting then collapsing
like salivating glands when you taste that cheesecake
that’s too rich and saccharine
My mama so sweet its sickening

They had to cut cyst out of her breast
like she had cavities within her chest
and I’m scared that if she don’t water down
the syrup in her spirit they will amputate
her limbs and ligaments leaving her bitter
to the taste—all sour in the face
where salty tears replace the stars that twinkle
and burst in my mama’s iris, my mom is

hot cocoa when my soul grows cold from all the pain
in the world, all gummy bear dimples and a heart
made of pecan swirls. My mama got a crockpot-type-hug
that fills the house with aroma. My mama fills me up

every time I’m around her. My mama is a recipe passed down
through generations and I just pray my children will have full plates
before she is called to grace – Amen. Pray her eyes will not be candy
wrapper shut before she ever has a chance to meet them.

But my mama be stubborn like Jawbreakers sometimes
So I make pools of apologies hoping she will forgive
me enough to take care of herself, but this aint no candyland-
child’s play and though disease is hard for anyone to swallow
this aint no sugar pill placebo cuz we know diabetes won’t just go away

And still my mama be like Baby everything gon’ be ok
My mama with her smile made of sugarcane
as I can’t help but fear the decay.