- Poetry
Gary Lenhart - from My Mother's Movie, E Pluribus
from My Mother's Movie
2. Work
She conducted market research,
Mostly in grocery stores,
And assembled a team more afraid
Of her than of snow or hail,
While she managed successfully
A constant cottage industry,
My stepfather, brother and me
On jobs she booked for us
(If we pleaded fatigue or injury
She’d say, “Offer it up”),
Long days toting refrigerators
And sofas, delivering newspapers daily
To coin boxes and stands, painting
Houses of old or disabled people,
Mowing lawns, chauffeuring
Someone to the doctor
Or to court. Her cousins
Would come straight from jail
For a meal and 20 bucks,
Vow to get straight,
Or acquaintances come by
To talk about their violent
Husbands, wayward wives, delinquent
Kids, failing bladders—
Or they asked her to co-sign
For much-needed loans
Until the bank said no more—
She never refused.
8. Fighter
So where’s the part about
The scrappy young woman
With an attitude, the one
With the rapier tongue
Who battled all slights
From scrappy sisters-in-law,
Horny bosses, vulgar Little League
Presidents, booth-intruding aldermen,
Despotic nuns—
The little woman who slugged
Her mild massive husband
And bar-fighting son?
She was never a doormat
But a battler who could go off
At unexpected triggers,
Afraid of neither bully
Nor windbag, badge
Or bankroll, condescending assholes.
She was one tough
Mother’s haywire daughter.
E Pluribus
Was I the only Catholic kid
At Herman’s bar mitzvah?
I thought it was a birthday party
But his parents treated it
Like a big deal.
They even took us to a movie
That they determined suitable
For adolescent boys—
The only one available
In Albany on a rainy afternoon—
The Nun’s Story. Herman kept asking
Me questions about what was going on.
Damned if I knew. I didn’t know any nuns
Who looked like Audrey Hepburn,
Knew nothing about the Congo,
And Herman probably knew more than I
About the German occupation of Belgium.
Gary Lenhart is the author of six collections of poetry, including The World in a Minute (2010) and Father and Son Night (1999) from Hanging Loose Press. His published prose includes The Stamp of Class: Reflections on Poetry and Social Class (University of Michigan Press, 2006) and Another Look: Selected Prose (Subpress, 2010).