Jacqueline Woodson - The cousins lyrics

It's my mother's birthday and the music is turned up loud. Her cousins all around her-the way it was before she left The same cousins she played with as a girl. Remember the time, they ask, When we stole Miz Carter's peach pie off her windowsill, got stuck in that ditch down below Todd's house, climbed that fence and snuck into Greenville pool, weren't scared about getting arrested either, shoot! nobody telling us were we can and can't swim! And she laughs, remembering it all. On the radio, Sam Cooke is singing "Twistin' the Night Away"; Let me tell you 'bout a place Somewhere up-a New York way The cousins have come from as far as Spartanburg the boys dressed in skinny-legged pants, the girls in flowy skirts that swirl out, when they spin twisting the night away. Cousin Dorothy's fiance, holding tight to her hand as they twist Cousin Sam dancing with Mama, ready to catch her if she falls, he says and my mother remembers being a little girl, looking down scared from a high-up tree and seeing her cousin there-waiting. Here they have a lot of fun Puttin' trouble on the run Twistin' the night away. I knew you weren't staying up North, the cousins say, You belong here with us. My mother throws her head back, her newly pressed and curled hair gleaming her smile the same one she had before she left for Columbus. She's Mary Anne Irby again. Georgianna and Gunnar's youngest daughter. She's home.