Finish That Year

I hadte finish that year, hadte start another.

my list started: buy new calendar, send off children...

one kid bused to Truth or Consequences

one kid flew to droopy Florida

one kid stayed home in an unheated house and paid off a loan

I'm the me, the mom, who went to a salad party, 

the last holiday party, a Late New Year's Party.

It was really a croquet party,

with Korean beef and a Kimchi refrigerator-

which has three compartments, 3 temperature controls-

and mostly teachers muttering that school starts, starts,

i n t h i r t y s i x h o u r s....WHACK, croquet ball lumps over dirt.

In 36 hours we will not be balancing plates with too much salad.

We will be starting our year again, like we always do,

helplessly, fearfully, brazen, muttering.

our paper plates will sog- up in the trash.

my vision will scramble death into hadte,  into Ed hat, into detah, into he dat...

and this year I  will think about the truth more, and the consequences,

the calendar will hold me to it, and it will withhold the children

until all is true.