October Memoir and Backstory Challenge: Secrets #1

Secrets is the topic for the next three poems in the October Memoir and Backstory Challenge.


Weight

I once gathered secrets
in a box.

They were quiet in there,
inspite of all they had to say
they kept their own counsel.

To look at them
they looked the same
on the surface:
black ink on white paper.

When I read them
I wondered how the heavy ones
didn't sink to the bottom
under their own weight.

October Memoir and Blog Challenge: relationships #3

Please Call First

 
I used to have a casual relationship with Death.
I'd invite him to show up in my artwork,
my writing,
my wondering about where we go next
Death brought me design ideas
skulls wearing hats
and big black sunglasses
Skeletons carrying suitcases
ready to travel
Death takes a holiday
was a recurring motif
These days my relationship with Death
is more intimate
I no longer feel he's a distant destination in a
tourist brochure
This year he seems to be waiting at the stops along my route
This year he's visited several familiar venues
and left his calling card
I'd like a formal relationship with Death now.
I want him to understand he needs to call first before he drops by.

October Memoir and Back Story Challenge - childhood - post #3

Make sure your grandmother is ready when I show up


the phone rings and it's my aunt
she's coming over
we're going shopping
I'm getting a knot in my tummy

I'm to get my grandmother ready
she doesn't have a lot of time to waste
I'm told

my grandmother has rushed to get ready
many times
only to sit there
overheating
in her peacock blue wool coat
black brimmed hat and
black leather shoes with the 2" heel that I help her lace up
and fit over her stockings
with the bandages beneath them
She has her polka dot scarf and as she sits
and waits
she slowly snaps
and unsnaps
the metal clasp on her black handbag
with each snap
my anger rises

we sit and wait
again
my aunt is late
again
my grandmother is getting angry
again
I try to take her mind off of it
again
she is ignoring me
again

I swallow my fear and say anything I can think of to keep my grandmother calm
lying right to her face wishing my aunt would just get here
I secretly support my grandmother's rage
but it would do us no good to show it.

in spite of my efforts
she takes off her peacock blue wool coat
casting it onto her bed
the hat comes off next
she gets irritated
when it catches her black bobby pin
undoing her carefully crafted pincurl
near her ear
She pulls the scarf off, balls it up
and places it alongside her purse on her floral bedspread

I tug at her dress
plead with her not to
undress
I tell her Barbara is coming
and she'll be mad
so mad
if she is not ready
my grandmother doesn't understand
she doesn't know
it's my job to make sure they don't fight
again
I'm going to fail
again

I promise her
that at any moment
my aunt will appear
and we will go
right away
and we'll have fun
and so my aunt arrives
opening the front door
moving into the house forcefully

again we are not ready

again I have not done this one simple thing

again there are raised voices

again I try to calm things down so we can just go
we can go, can't we?

Every Odd Numbered Day -Memoir & Backstory Blog Challenge, - 1 of 16 - TOPIC: childhood

Today begins a month's worth of blog posts on the topic of memories. 

This blog challenge will have me writing on all the odd numbered days in October. 

This first week we focus on childhood memories.

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Malted Milk Bars


Taking me by the hand
Frank Bower leads me to the kitchen.

We walk past pictures in black wood frames
high above me
careful to avoid white shiny
breakable things with gold edges
perched on flowery crocheted doilies
an endless expanse of
end tables lies ahead


We pass through
lemon Pledge furniture polish scented air
on our way to the
giant white refridgerator
whose door
with its heavy rounded corners
is like a low lustre photograph
Frank's old worn hand
pulls the long silver bar toward him
and it opens slowly,
the blast of cool air wakes me

Malted Milks.
two bars
snuggled side by side on a plastic ledge
waiting for my visit

all the energy I need to make it through
this Sunday visit with my grandfather's friend.