Sunday, May 22, 2011

Friday.

     I slip off my loop earrings and bracelets
     toss them in my purse.
     At a light, I fish around and find
     a semi-clean tissue and wipe off
     the red lipstick.
     High heels have long been exiled
     to the back seat
     and yet I pull into my driveway and know
     I have not stripped myself entirely of the work week.
     Half this and half that,
     I take a deep breath and walk through the door.
    
     Friday's here but we are all still there.
     The four of us will spend the night
     painfully becoming our Weekend Selves.
     We have, after all, spent the week as,
     and with,
     other people.
     We have lived
     in other places.

     The sun will set on the weekday
     and four ghosts will wander from room to room.
     There will be crying meltdowns or
     absent eyes sitting in front of a screen. 
    
     By Sunday we'll start to recognize each other.
     I start to feel like more than just
     She Who Nags about homework, dinner, baths.
     The house sighs.
     Often we decide
     to stay in our pajamas and lay around all day

      By Sunday
      Friday feels so far away...
    
     but so often now I learn something new
     about these people I live with:
     "When did you start saying/doing that?"
     "You didn't tell me that..."
      I stare at each of them, bewildered

     and try not to wonder
     How long before
     we remain Friday ghosts,
     strangers bumping around the house
     with no Sunday in sight?
    
 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Talisman

She says, "Close your eyes."
I do.
"Put out your hand."
I do.
"Nooo...not that way."
She puts in the palms of my outstretched hands
a foam picture frame she made for mother's day,
a crazy splatter of sequins and glitter and little hills of dried glue
In the picture she wears a floppy red hat cocked over one eye
a lace shawl around her shoulders
Which she holds with gloved hands.
"So that you remember that I love you
if you get sad.
You can take it to work if you want,"
she says
and skips off
to play school

Monday, May 9, 2011

Real Things

The couple at Rite-aid shopping together for adult diapers
    
In Zumba class, the 75-year-old woman in striped leg warmers and sparkly head band
     swaying to the music with her eyes closed

"Station for Rent" sign in the window of the fortune teller's store front
    
Cheap beer on Sunday morning. Mother's Day.
    
The wirey black hair
sticking out of the chin mole
that is love.

Friday, May 6, 2011

I find myself doing like back in the day
looking for answers
between pages of poetry books.

I grabbed as many from the library
as my arms could carry
and I'm approaching them slowly...
shyly.
First because I haven't been there
for a while
Then because I'm not sure
what I'd do if I found
what I didn't even know
I was looking for.

If I find the answer
and the search is gone
what would be left?

My mama's voice echoes:
"Read the Bible, hija."
 Yeah, I know...
 but I've had better luck
 with poetry.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

R.I.P. Ms. Rose

I.

     It was a typical morning. The kids and I burst in the office at Lad 'n Lassie, running late as usual. I finished signing Savvy in and looked up, right into the eyes of Ms. Rose...a picture of her, that is. It was attached to the donation box that had been sitting on the counter since she went through chemotherapy for the first time. It had been collecting dust lately, but now it was right smack in the middle. Good news, I thought. Maybe she's a candidate for another kind of treatment.
     I asked the the directors how she was doing, then glanced at the clock, instantly regretted starting the conversation when I was running so late.
     "Any day now," Doris said. 
     "...she'll be going into treatment?" I answered. But then I saw the look on her face and the numb poured over me. I felt cemented to the ground. The clock stopped ticking. Suddenly it wasn't that important if I was late to work.
     The horror of it framed my entire day.
     She is one year older than me.
      I thought of her 2-year old daughter and hoped someone had taken lots of pictures of them together...and that Ms. Rose had taken a lot of pictures before she'd gotten sick. Had I taken any pictures lately?
     From then on the donation box was a reminder to stop the madness. It made me ask myself: OK...is this a big deal? Is it worth yelling over?
     Any day now.
II.

     It was Valentine's day but you wouldn't know it walking into Lad 'n Lassie. For the first time  I could remember, the place hadn't been transformed into a red heart and cupid wonderland.
     In the office, images of Ms. Rose covered a poster board. There were pictures of her with her signature curls pinned on top and tumbling over her shoulders. That glossy smile.
     A wedding picture
     Pictures with every one of the L 'n L teachers. 
     posing with kids she'd taught throughout the years.
     and then ones of her when she'd lost her hair and wore a page boy hat. Her glossy smile strained.
     
     Next to the poster was a flyer for her memorial. 
     I gasped but the tears came anyway. Lupe (one of the directors) and the mom she'd been talking to came over and hugged me.  Lupe had been with her when she passed away. 
     Lupe's eyes shone with tears, but her smile was serene and wide.
     "You should have seen her," she said, "she was beautiful. I pressed my cheek against hers and she asked me to help her pray. She said, 'I'll miss you but I'm ready to go home.'"
She died in her sleep not too long after.

     When I got home, a bouquet of flowers sat on the table for Valentine's day. They were all my favorite flowers in all my favorite colors. Paul had also gotten Savvy two white roses. I decided not to tell him about Ms. Rose until that night.

III.

     What got me was when a little girl wearing a purple Tshirt and leggings, (her diaper giving her the precious baby bubble butt) walked down the aisle towards the easled poster filled with pictures memorializing her mother. She ran past it and the flowers, to an Elmo helium balloon that was attached to one bouqet. Somebody untied it and gave it to her. She turned and walked back to her seat with a grin on her face to where daddy sat. People smiled and cooed at her as she passed them, then burst into tears as soon as she was gone. I hoped that for the rest of her life people would not look at her and see loss death. 
     It took every muscle in my body to keep from crying. I was amazed at the force of grief.
     I was rocked with guilt.
     I'd thought of visiting her in the hospice since it was so close to where I work. I'd wanted to thank her and tell her how exceptional she'd been in the lives of Eli and Savvy...and mine. But I could never conjure the nerve. No matter what I said to her, it would be a good bye. Wouldn't that be insulting to someone who was going to live?
     I tried to focus on the purple. Many people wore purple, obviously her favorite color. Sprays of it everywhere: Tshirts, flowers...her husband wore a purple tie. 
     She'd planned her own funeral. Every speaker and singer said she'd asked them to participate in her funeral. She'd choreographed the order of events and had even helped put the video of her own life together.  
     I needed air. I needed to write. At the lobby of the place, someone had put out index cards, pens and boxes for guests to write letters that her daughter could read much later, when she was older. I wrote:
               
     Dear Lilly,
         Your mommy was soooo special. She was my son and daughter's teacher. Her smile helped me through tough times, especially when my son was in her class. It was during the hardest times when her smile would soothe me. Nothing could be that bad if she could smile like that after dealing with my darling all day. 
          She did the best impression of my son I've ever seen...the way he pokes his tongue against his cheek and looks down at the floor when he's embarrassed or has gotten caught. I hadn't even noticed the tongue thing until she did the impression for me the first time. 
          But while she touched me so much when she was alive, I just want you to know how her being gone has helped me... just as much as when she was alive. Every time I am losing control or perspective as a mother, your mommy's face pops into my head. I remember how hard she fought to concieve you, and then stay in your life. How could I take this for granted?
          You will always be in my prayers.

     Love,
     Eli and Savvy's mommy

IV.

     I'd decided not to write this. 
     But then I had to find a baby picture of Eli for a school project. I came across Ms. Rose again. She was in pictures with both my kids at the Halloween parades, Cinco de Mayo dances, class photos...there was the program of her memorial service a month ago. I'd put it way in the bottom of the red silk box of stray photos.
     Then there was the note scrawled quickly on a teddy bear memo pad.
     "Dear mom and dad," it said, "I just wanted to share with you something that Savvy said today. All day long, her response to anything I said was, 'praise be to God!' It was precious and I knew you'd love hearing about it. Love, Ms. Rose."
     It has been the first and last time a teacher has ever given me the gift of a glimpse inside allllll I miss when I am away from my children.
     I knew this would be hard
     but she's worth every tear.