fishing peanut butter out of the cupboard,
slamming down a jam jar from the fridge.
The bread’s the wrong kind,
the jam the wrong flavor,
the peanut butter a painful reminder
of childhood; nothing left
in the cupboard for Old Father Hubbard.
Obviously, he’s forgotten
he has money in his pocket, how to drive;
he’s forgotten his way to the store
a mile down the road, or up, if he pleases.
She hopes the bread gives him dietary fiber
one can only dream of, the peanut butter
protein galore, the jam a sugar high
so he can get away from TV
and go mow the lawn.
[+]
Sylvia's poems have appeared in Yankee, ad hoc Monadnock Online, Fearless Poetry Series’ The Light in Ordinary Things, November 3rd Club Journal, South Boston Literary Gazette,
and American University’s Journal of Gender and the Law, among others. I am the author of a chapbook of poems about a New England village and a recent nonfiction book, Tavern Village Tales.
