NEW POEM

ONLY ME TO REMEMBER

Witchhazel on cotton balls to clean her face
after ironing, and Salems (a woman's cigarette)
until Benson & Hedges came out
Pretty Feet on her calloused heels
Tall jelly glasses full of ice and coffee
She liked Dinah Shore, the Dorseys,
and John D. McDonald mysteries
She kept elephant ears and last year's
poinsettias, gone entirely green
She smoked while stirring gravy, began
coughing if she laughed too much
Shapeless flowered housedresses
that snapped up the front, Tonis
and rubber girdles for dressing up
She told me being a girl
was better than being a boy
but play along, they could not
handle the truth


© Maggie Jochild, 11:33 p.m., 2 August 2011