Q5 p. 37 end of the poem – Write and Discuss: Why might the author have repeated “after” so many times in this poem? What meaning does this poetic choice create? Poem:

After the chicken is fried and wrapped in wax paper,
tucked gently into cardboard shoe boxes
and tied with string…

After the corn bread is cut into wedges, the peaches
washed and dried…

After the sweet tea is poured into mason jars
twisted tight
and the deviled eggs are scooped back inside
their egg-white beds
slipped into porcelain bowls that are my mother's now,
a gift
her mother sends with her on the journey…

After the clothes are folded back into suitcases,
the hair ribbons and shirts washed and ironed…

After my mother's lipstick is on and my father’s
scratchy beginnings of a beard are gone…

After our faces are coated
with a thin layer of Vaseline gently wiped off again
with a cool, wet cloth…

then it is time to say our good-byes,
the small clutch of us children
pressed against my grandmother's apron, her tears
quickly blinked the way…

After the night falls and it is safe
for brown people to leave
the South without getting stopped
and sometimes beaten
and always questioned:

Are you one of those Freedom Riders?
Are you one of those Civil Rights People?
What gives you the right...?

We board the Greyhound bus, bound
for Ohio.

PLEASE HELP! HAVE UNTIL 5 P. M.