Modern Woman

I was thinking about this recently and maybe when I don’t have a baby demanding all my attention, I will talk more about it, but here is a poem I wrote junior year of college. Ages ago.

Do you see me? I live, unashamedly, with my boyfriend

In a shabby apartment with two cats – I never do dishes

My hands turn bright radish red and burn when I scrub

The remnants crusting along the bottom of pots, bowls.

I learned how to knit this weekend – I’ve always known

I think, something ingrained in my fingers which proved

Unsuited for musical instruments, a failure at violin

Barely passable at piano, enough for a girl like me.

I was never meant to have a 4.0, never meant to go to

This school, I’ve been found to be unoriginal

Not remotely interesting. I was meant to make small talk with

A cocktail in one hand while my husband made business deals.

I bake cookies, brownies and muffins for fun instead of

Reading Nabokov or learning about Attitudes Based on

High Consumer Effort – I prefer to sew, knit, embroider

While watching TLC’s Trading Spaces.

I think I will be a housewife when I grow up – marketing

Is not for me. I will put up with dishpan hands, clean up

After two cats and send three kids to school, hoping they will

Do something with their lives – I will become my mother.