Yes, I’ll sit down and eat, though I have
too many things to do. Get your hands off of me:
I am not falling. Listen to me:
it was in Munster where I no, put that
over there, no, not there studied Picasso.
His first mistress was Jewish, you know.
Well, you should be interested;
he’s a very important artist, no
I won’t pay that bill, it’s too much money
Besides I didn’t need to go to the hospital,
it was just a scratch – well, of course
they’d say I needed stitches. Be careful
of that porcelain, it’s Lladro, Lladro
was where your father started having
heart trouble, no that’s too much butter.
If you’re going to pay it, then write
PAID on it. Write the date. No, lower down.
You used black ink. Use red ink. Can’t you do anything right.
Didn’t I tell you about Esther’s daughter’s husband?
Can you deny children owe their parents everything?
This newspaper is too wrinkled. Take it back
and get me another one. His brother is quite
a well-known surgeon, and did you see
Grandma’s librettos in the closet. No, I won’t get rid of them
they’re very valuable. Where’s the butter, you’ve
hardly put any on. Yes, I took my pills – oh
those, no I haven’t taken them yet that’s
what I said. Your Dad’s letters?
I think they’re in a suitcase in the basement.
Well, you can throw them out, I don’t care.
Demented priestess, see how she totters
in my loose and bleeding skin.
Roberta Feins was born in New York, and has also lived in North Carolina and
(currently) in Seattle. She works as a computer consultant. She received her MFA
in Poetry from New England College in 2007. Her work has been published in Tea
Party, Floating Bridge Review, and The Lyric. Poems are forthcoming in Bridges
and kaleidowhirl. She is an editor of the e-zine Switched On Gutenberg, see
http://www.switched-ongutenberg.org/.