When they were young, he came to dinner every Sunday at her family home. Not to marry him would have seemed unfair. She was usually pregnant, as he modestly provided. After he passed, she canonized him for the decades she outlived him, with only a hint of relief. The daughter he did not touch had already become the family scapegoat. The daughter he did touch swallowed a whole bottle of aspirin early in childhood. She made her siblings laugh, and it remained her lot to entertain, leave money when she passed, and be eulogized as quick witted with a warm heart.
Sheila E. Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Her most recent book is Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). Reporting Live from You Know Where won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland).