Old Wife's Tail

A Poem by Trace

A cute little story about learning

Grandpa was a sober man

Strapping big and tall

Most thought that he was always mad

‘Cause; he rarely smiled at all

Now grandma on the other hand

Was tiny and petite

She always had a happy face

When a stranger she might meet

But one thing about Grandma

I will remember to this day

Were the superstitions she imagined

From her beliefs she would not stray

Oh, she knew all the reasons

Why things were the way they were

How those truths had been passed along

And what made strange things occur

Grandma was unbending

In sharing with all her kin

For if we didn’t mind the rules

Who knows where chaos would begin

One day she really scared me

While we were walking by the tracks

She warned me: “Step on a crack

Break your mothers back”

So when I got to my house

I checked on Mommy right away

And told her what Grandma had said to me

And thanked goodness she was OK

Then once when I was visiting

I asked Grandpa about that day

And he tried to explain to a young boy

Why Grandma was that way

He told me about superstitions

And something of an “old wife’s tale”

Though I was too young to understand

It was something on which to dwell

So I thought about it for hours

Till curiosity got the best of me

I had to find out if it was true

So I asked Grandma if I could see

She was a little dumbfounded

But Grandpa was rolling on the floor

When I asked to see her “old wives tail”

Her big old broom shooed me out the door.

© 2016 Trace

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Featured Review

Patricia Wedel

dear Trace, your poem reminds me of my
Grandma Minnie who is smiling in Heaven.
She loved to fish and would trade a brand new
Cadilac for a common car if it had the best
trunk for her fishing gear. In the last line,
I understood your "Title". Cute story, Indeed.
truly, Pat