My grandmother’s mahogany end table,
the other grandmother’s fluted vase,
Aunt Marge’s petit point covered side chair,
and the O’Connell family Bible,
rescued from the house on Garfield Street
after the hurricane in ’55.
You’ve been around for generations.
I’ve done my part to keep you on and
I’m just about at the end of my rope.
It’s high time you stopped
the back-talk, silent treatment,
put-downs, dirty Irish tricks.
No more remarks about what irks you,
who mimics you, mocks you, turns her
back on you, avoids you on the street.
Look at me!
I’m on to you—
you end tables
you vase
you side chair
you Bible.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 22, Issue 4.
Judith Hoyer’s 2017 chapbook “Bits and Pieces Set Aside” was nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award by the publisher of Finishing Line Press. Her recent poems appear in or are forthcoming from CALYX Journal, Southwest Review, The Examined Life, The Moth Magazine (Irish) and The Worcester Review.
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