POEM #7- BYGONES

April is National Poetry Month. For the past four years, I have joined my friend Mary Lee, at POETREPOSITORY and YEAR OF READING in writing a poem every day for a month. This year, Mary Lee's theme is BYGONES. She has selected thirty vintage photographs from a collection she found at her mom's house in Burlington, Colorado, and is writing from one photograph every day. I'm not sure if I will write from Mary Lee's photographs every day, or if I will see if I can find some of my own. For the past few years, we have been joined by several other amazing poets- Kevin Hodgson and Steve Peterson. 

"Rose"

I'm a prim and proper gal

I know my place
crimping a pie crust over sweet cinnamon apples
bathing babies in the washtub on the kitchen table
sitting next to my Joe in the pew on Sunday mornings 

And yet…

I don't want anyone

to think me staid or stodgy

So when Verla shows up
in front of my house
in a model T,

no, that's not right,

when Verla shows up 

driving a car

and says, "Come on Rose,

we're going to lunch,"

I call to Joe
and tell her sure, 

and get my hat
and my pocket book

and my white gloves

just like any proper lady would

and then I climb in
right behind Mary Katherine,
and Gloria

and even Ruth
who really is staid and stodgy
and we all pose
for a photograph

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2016