sister’s in the back seat with her head hung low
daddy drove around in a black rusted-out used car
our elegant standard poodle named for a salami held
his head high so happy to go for a ride
he worshipped father who once carried him out of the
ravine on a chalkboard stretcher +saved his life yet again
when a chicken bone lodged in his blacksonavitch throat
his middle name after a tzarist priest the other Rasputin
i shrieked and ran in circles as daddy ejected said bone he
also shouted at me: if you fall apart how can you save a life?
i never fell apart again currently held together with dirty twine
+wrigleys but i did have precedent for PANIC 5 yr. old witness
to my grandmother’s demise a massive stroke beside blue budgie
mother pulled at her hair +wailed all medusa-harridan my parents were
beautiful misfits in our immigrant neighbourhood where social climbing
was a religion a merciless stigmata
i wore the sign of suspected poverty on my forehead Ash Wednesday
everyday BUT i was pretty +pretty smart (!) so when the moleybitches
teased i flirted with stardom
even Dorothy didn’t know that her old home was safe inside her like a
stillborn child mine recently dropped from the sky the black Consul in
the drive C’mon father let’s go for a ride!
i’d give anything to sit
in that used car again
or would i?
__
..in life you work at dignity
in chain gangs of beauty+cruelty
O take me back to Parchman Purdon Farm..
Winter 2024 .. 1st poem..🌞🌻
songanddancegirl 