In the back seat of the car,
all the way to South Dakota,
Trijtnje served tea.
“Cup ee tay ha?” she would say, and smile,
“Kopke tee?” in Frisian Dutch.
Always a gracious host,
she passed this trait to her daughter,
and my grandma passed it to me.
You never take a drink
without offering to others,
You always have a treat,
some coffee or tea,
They took her with them to the Dakotas,
to see relatives who hated the Indians,
We may be poor,
but we’re not “them”,
not Black or Indian,
thanks be to God.
They came to America and learned its ways,
Learned who was who, and what was what,
Grandma Trijntje served tea in the back seat of the car,
only there was no tea,
it was all imaginary,
just like those boundaries they put between people,
that America taught them were real.
cfblack 07-20-2019
Doctor Grandma 
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