I Remember Mom

I stood across from PS 153
Holding Mom’s hand.
First day of school, ever! Scary!
She let go and life changed.

35 years later,
When I came to visit,
She was pacing by the kitchen window.
I was coming home late.

On subsequent trips to Florida
There was always a salami sandwich
And a cream soda.
A reminder of what really mattered.

Her 90th birthday party,
Surrounded by family and friends,
Might have been a belated crowning
Of the Queen mother.

I think she saw that day
As the completion of her dreams;
Children, grandchildren safe,
And far from the Depression’s hunger.

Here’s to you Mom,
The “practical” Ruth Greenspan.
No one here is taking piano lessons,
But maybe you taught us something about life.

One Cup Coffee-maker

Some one gave us this other coffee-maker.
It only makes one cup
And sits next to the 8 cup coffee-maker.
Somehow it represents progress.

I feel the earth is moving away,
And I’ve not been invited on the trip.
I’m unsure I would go if invited,
But I desperately want the acceptance.

If someone should stop by
Do I offer her a cup of coffee
Watch her drink,
Unable to pour myself a cup?

I could pour myself the cup
And let my guest watch me.
(Wars have been started
Over smaller insults.)

Of course I could make four cups
In the eight cup coffee-maker,
But that would mean not using
My latest acquisition.

People in the under-developed world
Would not understand the dilemma.
That is probably why they live
In places that do not have electricity.

Gone

Hiding in the bedroom closet                                           
Rose tried not to breath,                                                    
Fearing her son-in-law, Lou                                                      
Might find and rape her.                                                  
 
Over the past two years,
While living with Ruth,
She had reformed her world view,
And would now not leave the house.
 
Rose had loved Lou,
But now confused him
With the anti-semites in her shtetl                
Who had raped Jewish girls.                
 
Ruth had fought to stay in Brooklyn,
Near her mother’s apartment
But now could no longer house Rose,
Who was moving into a fantasy world.
 
Rather than move to an “old age” home                   
Rose volunteered
To live in the closet,                         
And eat less.                                                                   
 
The “home”smelled of urine                                                                   
But Rose did not notice
She wore her nightgown backward
Nor could she identify her family visitors


Such was the families regard for her
That thirty cousins visited Rose.
She had held the family together.
She lingered for two terrible years.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Frayed Wiring

She hid in the closet
Terrified her son-in law
Was going to rape her.
She stayed very quiet.
 
Her reality had moved,
And now included revisiting nightmares 
First experienced in a hamlet 
Outside Vilnius.
 
Was she attacked as a child?
Possibly. Memories
Had become translucence,
Which yesterday was yesterday?
 
Decisions were being made 
But no one asked her.
They would decide her fate,
Ruth and Lou.
 
Rose knew she was not well.
She begged, saying she would eat less,
Offer more help with the meals;
Anything ... only not to be taken away.
 
Away to a place that kept old people,
To share a room with a stranger.
You didn’t return from such places.
Lou was a good man, he would not do it.
 
Jack is dead, Ruth had told her.
Jack had always smoked.
Fifty years in the apartment
Where the hall light always burned.
 
 

There’s Too Much on My Plate

It’s time to drop down,
Don my safety helmet,
Turn off the electronics,
And see what is left of the tea party.

It seems the Queen has issued edicts
Calling for the beheading of short people,
And the recall of all the even-numbered years.
Losing all those years requires longer odd-numbered ones.

This process is daunting.
She has also recalled all years before 4,000 BC.
All evidence showing life before that date,
Has been pronounced “wrong” and “blast-famous”.

“I want my kingdom back” bellows the queen.
Her consort, once the ruler of a large auto manufacturer,
Booms “off with his head”, “off with his head”.
Then the couple begins a tango.

I climb back to the land of pins.
Pins that show my loyalty
To god, country, job, club and party.
My life’s resume on a lapel.

I have work to do,
Horses to ride & villains to catch.
Emails to write, programs to watch,
And phone commercials that demand my attention.

Alice’s place offered no refuge,
And earth’s surface is infested with noise makers.
I think I’ll look for an unoccupied mountain top
Where I can just listen to “The Performer Previously Called Prince”.

Taking Offense

How could he have treated me so badly
Or was I looking at half the cards?
I think to manifest maturity
Requires stopping at "how".

Changing the other guy
Is so-o-o rewarding
But with little shelf life
And no meaningful expectation.

I assume the posture of an adult.
It does not become me,
Given my insistence
On asking others to do the lifting.

The pleasure of being right
Outweighs the desire to move forward.
Of course my book of hurts and outrages
Does not go back 500 years...yet.

You have not acknowledged my greeting,
Or laughed at my jokes.
You have denied my 2000 year old land claim.
In the next life you will get over this.

Charity

Poor, but employed
Able to pay his rent,
Through an overextended credit card,
Alex took out a 5.

He didn’t have a 1,
But wanted to give the panhandler something.
From charity
Or guilt?

Alex was close enough
To smell the Dago-Red.
Pre-noon and the poor bastard
Was gone.

Grasping the proffered five,
It took a moment
Before he recognized Lincoln.
When, when was the last Lincoln?

Alex watched the man’s face
Move from confusion to sobriety,
As the moment of surprise
Morphed into clarity.

The man dropped to his knees shaking.
Through tears
H clasped Alex’s hand
And kissed it.

Alex could not watch
Without being reduced to an epiphany
Wherein he saw the drunk
Recalling a time before.

Not wanting to dirty his clean shirt,
Yet feeling a compulsion to embrace the desperate creature,
Alex wrapped himself in his own arms
And wept.