I'm Warning You

By Jo Carson / March 1, 1985

Magazine cover with three photos of elderly people

This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 13 No. 2/3, "Older Wiser Stronger: Southern Elders." Find more from that issue here.

I'm warning you

 

to come back home.

It's your last chance

on seem' me alive.

 

You missed your grandaddy,

you missed your uncle Howard,

you missed your daddy.

I buried 'em, everyone.

you just showed up for the funeral

and that's the easy part.

 

You even missed your dog.

It was me buried him out back

all by myself on a Sunday morning.

That, the most recent life gone.

 

I've not got much love left in me

for this world no more.

I ain't interested in holdin' on much longer.

 

You best get back here

and let me fill you up with what I know while I'm alive.

 

I got stories I ain't told nobody yet.

Before I go, come home.

 

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