Cazoshay Marie

Creative Legacy:
“Bobby D” is a poem about my paternal grandfather, hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, and ultimately settling with his wife and children in Anchorage, Alaska. He had a career in the military before becoming a history teacher. His name was Robert Ward, Sr. but he went by “Bobby D” when he was a drummer in a jazz band, something he gave up to be a husband and dad. I don’t know much about that part of his life as he gave it up for his family and didn’t really talk about it often. Sacrificing to provide a better life for us all was a recurring theme during his life, and I wanted to honor him with this piece.

“Bobby D”

Your hands permanently stained with oil from years of manual labor
Jumping train tracks
A child carrying on his back blocks of ice and giant bags of coal
Carrying on your back the burden of making a better life for your descendants
A burden you were proud to bear
Working, praying for a better future for them
Than you ever could ever have dreamed of for yourself
Imagine yourself
Answering to “boy” although you outranked them
And were a hundred times more of a man than they could ever hope to be
Hope to be
Stealing bags of potatoes to feed your family
You suffered the indignities
Swallowed a lifetime of pain until it became a cancer
Jazz drummer turned husband, father, grandfather, ancestor
The rhythm of a love that resonates across time and space
The stuff legacies are made of
Those oil-stained hands
Built the health and wealth of generations to come
A dream come to fruition a hundred times over
Gratitude