Chores
Black two-piece suit
piped gold or silver
Cucumber slice eyes
Pink lips, pink toenails
Can of Fresca, ashtray
in shade under a recliner
I can still see Mrs. W
tanning in yard grass
Neighborhood men lapped her up
Mowing lawn rows
Yanking leaves from gutters
Resealing driveways shiny
Even my own dad couldn’t resist
the occasional glance, an ogle
as he scrubbed our birdbath
frequently and thoroughly
Mrs. W wasn’t like my mom
She wasn’t like any mom
Chain smoker for one thing
Drove her Country Squire fast
Wore miniskirts, skin tight jeans
Knotted summer tops below her bra
exposing flat stomach, bellybutton
But she did have kids – four of them
One day, I am washing my bike
Mrs. W is hosing her Squire
Bending over in white hot pants,
a bright red bullseye on her butt
A heart bite of warm, fresh blood
I look both ways, sprint across the street
You’re bleeding!
Mrs. W whips around to face me
A girl of seven gripping a soapy sponge
Better get used it
You’re cursed too
Another Kind of Man
Mr. Memmi kneading dough
inside The Hershey Bakery
Mr. Memmi the first and only man
who got down on one knee for me
to hand me a hot, powdery roll
the size of my palm I placed
against my cold cheek in winter
Pronio’s Grocery Store
selling everything under the sun
from sausage to Snowy Bleach
Mr. Pronio’s with his utility knife
freeing plastic toys attached to products
She can have the giveaway prize
He would tell my mother
No need to buy anything, Mrs. Watts
Mr. Tulli fitting shoes, humming Sinatra tunes
Never asking annoying questions about school
Mr. Cagnoli’s flute lessons
accompanied by two Dalmatians
One head for his lap and one for mine
I’d pause and squeak, forget flats, sharps
On my way out, a candy bowl
Try to remember to practice this week if you can
Maybe the whole town was inside a bubble
A Five & Dime plastic snow globe
I know the flakes don’t fall by themselves
I know you have to shake up the world
to make a small miracle happen but look
Milton Hershey built a whole town
and a boarding school still birthing
one bright future after another
just by selling candy in this world
I don’t believe in the northern star
not any god, no blind hope of any kind
but I do believe in something
I was there and I saw it myself