FUNCTIONAL MEN.

A WOMAN REMEMBERS HER MOTHER AND ABUSIVE FATHER.

Functional that’s all
You could say about
Him, Blanche says,

Just like the old man
Or so Mother said and
She wasn’t quite the

Ticket most of the time
What with the way she
Was, the booze addled

Brain of hers, but none
The less, she did relate
That fact and Blanche

Remembers her mother
Sitting on the front porch
Rocking back and forth

In the rocker sporting
A black eye, knitting
Feverishly, her eyes

(Even the blackened
One) on each movement
Of her hands, watching

The wool move and the
Needles going clickety
Click clickety click and

Not looking up at her
Daughter, as if ashamed
Of the eye or the spilt lips,

And yes, he was functional
Just like her old man, at
Least in bed, and she now

Remembering her mother
And her own childhood
And the long walks to the

Outhouse with the dread
Of him being there, makes
The whole circus of being

Alive just that much more
Dangerous and she even
More circumspect of men.