Ludie's Life

Cynthia Rylant

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780544630871

In “luminous moments told in lovely language, ” the poems of the Newbery Medal–winning author of Boris bring a rural woman to vivid life ( School Library Journal ).
 
Cynthia Rylant returns to her home state of West Virginia with this powerful and evocative collection of poems. In a heartbreaking narrative that flows like a novel, we follow Ludie from childhood to falling in love and getting married, through the birth of her own children, and on into old age. This is the story of one woman’s experiences in a hardscrabble coal-mining town, a story that brims with universal themes about life, love, and family—and all of the joy, laughter, heartache, and loss that accompany them.
 
Would she tell you that six children
were too many,
that some disappointed,
others surprised,
but that, all in all,
six
were too many
and one
would have been just fine?
Would she tell you that she married
that boy at fifteen
not only because he was tall and kind
but also because
she needed a way out?
 
“A brilliant contribution to the growing collection of Appalachian literature that tells the story as honestly and purely as life in the mountains has always been and always will be.” — Teenreads
 
“A collection of Zen-like moments of self-discovery and serenity . . . A powerful read for young and old alike.” — Kirkus Reviews

Would she tell you that six children

were too many,

that some disappointed,

others surprised,

but that, all in all,

six

were too many

and one

would have been just fine?

Would she tell you that she married

that boy at fifteen

not only because he was tall and kind

but also because

she needed a way out?

Her mother had died years before,

her father married again,

a woman with children of her own,

a woman who pushed Ludie

away from the house,

away from the supper table.

Would she tell you that she stole food

when she was eight,

stole food from the supper table

and ran to the creek to eat it,

because had she waited for that woman

to feed her,

there would have been

only scraps?

Ludie was a beautiful girl,

saucy, some called her,

and she raised herself,

herself and her sister, Trula,

after their mother died.

They were living in Alabama,

it was the 1910s,

and there was a train to Birmingham,

a train that could take them out of that

coal camp

to Birmingham

if only they’d had the money

and the courage,

but the train to Birmingham

always left without them.

They sat on the grassy hill

with everyone else

who had come to watch the train

pull in and out,

not a nickel in

their pockets,

owned by the mine

that sent their fathers and sons

to dark graves.

Not a nickel in

their pockets.

Ludie’s life then was happy and sad,

she would say.

There was no thought

to what work

she might do in her life.

Teacher.

Nurse.

Not a chance.

Not when you’re stealing food

off your own supper table.

Did Ludie’s father

love her?

Obviously not as much

as the second woman

he married.

This was not lost

on Ludie.

So when that boy—

they called him “Rupe,”

and he was tall and kind—

walked her home from the train

when she was fifteen,

their future was sealed

and there would be six babies,

maybe five too many,

and sex

would never be what it was

that first night,

it would be instead

one of those gifts

you know you can’t afford

but you spend the money anyway,

sex would be instead

one of those things

you could have done without, maybe,

if you’d known the cost.

She spent the money anyway

and there were six babies,

five too many,

and she’d be the rest of her life

taking care of the...