On Sundays, Mama, an Appalachian queen, wore dresses paired with a gaudy necklace, and thick knee high hosiery secured with ribbons. Weekdays were spent barelegged in gingham, with back bent, hauling coal and chasing her brood of eleven. One frosty May, Mama’s spirit illuminated the Northern star, no dress required.

Becky Parker is a Push Cart Prize nominee. Her works are in Spirit Fire Review, Agape Review, Sweety Cat Press, Yellow Mama, Appalachia Bare, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, the Rye Whiskey Review, Pulse, the Green Shoe Sanctuary,  Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal, Amaranth Journal, Spire Light, Avocet, Mackenzie’s Publication, Salvation South, Heart of Flesh, Mildred Haun Review, and North Dakota Quarterly. She is the founder of Briar Haus Writes, a literary page.