Warrior Women: A Poem

This poem is for my Mom Gloria and her sister Ann who died hours apart in April, 2020.

By Hettie V. Williams

i want to say

their names: Gloria and Ann

while sorrow seeps from my veins

and memories march into my brain

on yet another sleepless night.

Mom (on the right) and Aunt Ann at the last major family gathering in Georgia.

cancer conquered Mommy on April 8.

Aunt Ann died of the virus,

and a broken heart, the next day.

both daughters of Vonciel

the granddaughter of a slave

who survives them in her old age.

This is one of the last photos I took of Mom in 2020.

Black nightingales they were —

these two warrior women

who loved family gatherings, good food,

friends, fine clothes, and their children

for whom they did everything.

some say mothers can be rough, I disagree.