Exotic soda pop appeals to Mary Lucille DeBerry―sarsaparilla or red cream soda. The native West Virginian confesses she avoids eating young groundhogs and possums. She would rather place them in poems. Titles of her three collections, published by Sarvis Press, evoke strong women: Bertha Butcher’s Coat (Revised 2020), Alice Saw the Beauty (2014), and She Was the Girl (2020). But she does not discriminate against men. A number of her poems involve men in the mines, men at war, men on farms. Appalachian people, flora and fauna reign. For information about her books, contact the author at redwing1@zoominternet.net
MARY LUCILLE DeBERRY
HAIL TO THE LATE EUELL GIBBONS
Sing Song. Have a Song Sing.
Dig up a little rare Ginseng.
Stomp along. Stomp and Stamp.
Harvest now a bunch of ramps.
Traipse through woods: thick and thin.
Find a treasure tree―a Chinquapin.
Go down into the Pawpaw Patch―
Hang baskets high to get the catch.
Think of death. Think of gloom.
Pull up an exotic mushroom.