Sunday, March 1, 2009

Trash can love

Mother can’t.quite.grasp the Gallo rosé
hidden behind the Cheerios, plunges

buttfirst into the thirty-three gallon

trash can. She’s wedged up to her knees, half-way

down the barrel, her ass throned on empty

mac&cheese boxes, milk jugs, & egg shells.


Who wouldn’t fall on the floor laughing?

She screams at each of us for a jerk, cries,
bribes us with chips. The Rubbermaid turtle,

stranded in our kitchen, calls out to us:

Grab my hand, I’ll tell you that I love you.
We don't help her, don't want to hear garbage.
She's got to crawl out of this dump herself.

2 comments:

Emily said...

I love this one. I esp. like the balance of pathos and humor here. You always avoid the "pity party" in the poems, but you don't undermine them with too much levity either.

RobynLynn said...

The final line was weak and disappointing:

And even with a kitchenful of help,
she's got to crawl out of this dump herself.

Better?

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