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Southern Tier Life // ISSUE 02
My Grandma Taught Me to Watch Birds by Sky Moss
My grandmother’s name was Eloise Foster. My youngest daughter shares that beautiful, old Pennsylvania name. My grandmother had family named, Esther, Edith, Edna…. Originally my grandma Eloise was not comfortable with me and my brother. She spent most of her life not seeing, knowing
black people. We grew on her. (side note…. I learned to write reading Reader’s Digests in her bathroom). My Grandmother Eloise could bake, sew, cook Goulash and whoop your ass; in the same hour. She was patient and observant, kind and wise. On days I had a fever, a cold, mom took me to Grammy’s. I feigned sick. On winter Thursdays we baked bread and made cinnamon buns. The yeast smelled cool and
the oven warmed the room. Outside the three panel kitchen window the bird feeders adorned tree limbs. Two maples, a birch and crab apple tree hosted the guests. Every season the visitors changed… Grand Budapest Hotel… some are regulars, most are. The aberrations and new arrivals kept me peeking out the window. There were various feeder types, homemade, hummingbird specific, suet pinecones, anti-squirrel joints. They hung like edible wind chimes across those four trees. Grandma kept bird books to reference the visitors. Sparrows, chickadees, Tufted Tits, Cardinals, bluebirds, wrens, goldfinches, my favorite friends, they pull up and say, “what’s good?” I operate off two feeders (2021). One is designed purposefully; it is bully proof. Big obnoxious birds aint welcome…… Oh, Ima name names…. It took some thought and imagination to negotiate that. The seed you offer is important too. Niger sunflower is Sky Moss is an Associate Professor at Corning the best for song Community College
