My Poem from an Old Photograph

Photo:
Coy Ray Council, born June 29, 1926, Manatee County, Florida
was the oldest son of Coy Lee Council and Lois Robison Council. He served in the United States Navy, earned his teaching degree and a masters degree from ABAC in Tifton, GA and the University of Georgia. He taught at Albany High School, Albany, Georgia.
He left teaching to go into business, and with his brothers eventually c0-owned and operated a manufacturing plant, Hercules Bumper Company in Pelham, GA where he served as CEO for over twenty years.

After a courageous three year battle with multiple myeloma, he died at the age of 74.

A Photograph of My Brothers and Me
by Glenda C. Beall

We stand in the front yard
before our white frame house
five of Mother’s seven kids.
I, dressed up in my white church dress,
leaning toward Ray, the older brother.

To my left is teasing brother, Hal
who swiped biscuits off my plate.
Standing like bookends are Max, the storyteller,
the songwriter. Rex, quiet like a wise old owl,
listening, thinking, seldom speaking.

Max told me stories, lying in the hammock
in the dark, under the giant Oak.
Rex taught me to water-ski, pulling me
past the stumps in Lake Blackshear.

Hal made sure I was not forgotten. He taught
me to dance – and did we dance, dance, dance.
Ray, Ray was there through good and bad, for all
of us, like a father, smart and solid as the stone
on his grave.




Published in the Journal of Kentucky Studies