Everything, a personal history
Earliest memory: Looking at ants on
peony buds while a black man looks
at me. No, looking away from ants on
peony buds to notice a black man looking at me. And waving. And not knowing whether to wave back. (Confusing.)
I will drive by the Tesla dealership two
times before I will notice the Tesla dealership.
I will turn down the radio in order to call out
of my not-Tesla: “Elon? Elon Musk?”
And on my way to David’s Bridal
I will wonder why I am marrying a man named
Brandon and not marrying Elon Musk.
I will die. And I will not remember today when
I bought $56 worth of groceries for a trip to
rural Virginia where I will leave a disabled woman in a cabin and never hear from
her again. “Disabled? Disabled Woman?”
On a three-hour layover in Washington, D.C.,
a seat in Union Station to wait for Obama
to walk by.
Granola bars, chicken nuggets, dried
chunks of mango, and a
candy bar. (Yum!)
“Barack? Barack Obama?”
I will wave at everyone,
just in case.
Maribeth Theroux has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and once appeared Off-Broadway as Kelly Kapowski in Bayside! The Musical. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Armchair/Shotgun, Noble/Gas Qtrly, Hobart, Barrelhouse, and Forklift, Ohio. Maribeth lives in Pasadena, CA with her husband and their cat. She’s occasionally at twitter.com/maribeththeroux
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Cover Photo: Cless (https://www.flickr.com/photos/cless/)