Ruminate Magazine: Faith in Literature and Art

Martha Krystaponis

Her small foot tapped the stained carpet,
  then self-conscious, she crossed her legs.
But her foot continued bouncing

  in the air, covered by a faded slipper.
Arthritis inhibited her movement, but not much,
  from years of pointy-heeled style.

I nestled next to her arm, smelling her lotion
  and the scented pouches from her closet.
The Statler Brothers warbled country gospel

  from the TV, and my extended
family gathered in the den to listen,
  sing along, and clap. One stood,

bowed low before my great-grandma,
  asked her for a dance.
Her toes paused the rhythm, questioning,

  but her smile accepted. Focus turned from
“Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord” to
  the slow-dancing woman and son-in-law.

My mom laughed with tears in her eyes
  as the song ended, and we applauded
for our elderly Cinderella

  with wrinkled feet and terrycloth slippers.
The Statler Brothers’ bass singer rumbled,
  “Don’t go away, ‘cause we ain’t even started yet.”

Martha Krystaponis is a BFA creative writing student at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. Her story about her Lithuanian heritage was published in RUMINATE, and her short manuscript of ten poems titled, Tessie: Examinations of  Belonging, won fifth place in the National Federation of  State Poetry Societies’ college competition in Spring 2007. She loves to travel all over the world; however, with rather limited opportunity to do so, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and loves to also claim her birthplace of New Jersey as a portion of  “home.”