HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH
how did you get through your childhood?
I rode the subways
for hours
not going anywhere
not watching the people
not looking out the window
just riding
how?
I hid in closets
and opened my eyes
I could make the dark
turn colors
blue, red, violet
I hid behind the coats
they looked like the skins
of giants
I hid behind the couch
and put my hand
between my legs
I hid under the bed
and blew at balls of dust
how did you get through?
I climbed a sugar maple
up top
where the limbs were rotten
I hung onto the bark
like a locust shell
how did you survive?
by not being found
who were you?
they never told me.
how did you get through?
I haven't yet.
© Mary Mackey
GRANDMOTHER POEM
Sometimes in my dreams
I still see
my Kentucky grandmother
thin, strong, and hungry
holding her egg money
out to me
saying:
buy land, Mary
buy land
buy land while it lasts
they stopped making it
© Mary Mackey, both poems from "Split Ends" by Mama's Press, Oakland CA, 1974
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