Gramatan 5 & 10
Lynne McEniry
1.
Poppy said that First Holy Communion
made a certain mark on me
if I could receive the Body of Christ
I could work the cash register in his
5 & 10 cent store
It was a clunky old thing thick wooden drawer compartments for each kind of bill each kind of coin
2.
Be it this day or days later she knows
death is near
but she chooses not to let her
her children, grandchildren know
instead she makes them laugh
a few breaths from death and choosing not
to let us know what now we know she knew
3.
First I saw the deer
dart toward me from my perch
on the back of the bike
then I saw the deer
lying close by where I lay
both of us silent, both of us still
then I heard the deer
bleating, bleating
but it was a different deer
it was the mother deer
standing over her fawn
bleating, bleating
I crawled away from the deer made the mother deer dash we left the fawn alone silent alone still
4.
My father in the first pew all eyes
on him, he casts his eyes down
he will not see his wife draped
in the white of her new life
he will not see her incensed
for her journey home
he will not see the grieving touch her casket with fingers with tears
he raises them only
when the congregation sings
5.
We saw the whales together
spouts first
then sleek and massive humps
still then gleaming baleen plates
The Dolphin Fleet our chapel, its bow our altar
screeching seagulls, splashing flukes our worship hymns
6.
Poppy said that First Holy Communion
made a certain mark on me
Poppy and the cash register both
long gone
they leave me with a sacramental stain
Lynne McEniry has poems and reviews published in 5 AM, Adanna, The Stillwater Review, Paterson Literary Review, The Lake Rises Anthology, and others. Her poems have won Honorable Mention for the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Lynne curates readings and workshops, including those in conversation with visual arts. She is a regular guest editor for Adanna Literary Journal for which she edited several special issues including, “Hurricane Sandy: Students Speak Out” and “How Women Grieve.” Lynne teaches writing and is the director of the Academic Success Center at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Drew University.