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pads |More poetry: Dr. Michael
Abramson's
poetry, "timeless," by Joe Davis
The poem received an award from the annual
Berkeley poetry
dinner contest, 1999.
"A Death in the Family"
by Ellaraine Lockie
I check toilet papers for
the pinkish stain
That announces its arrival
My time of the month
Link to the moon
Mankind enabler
Menstrual period
A period fading into
a question mark
Soon to be an unpunctuated blank
Ovarian governors wither on
fallopian vines
An oncoming death in my
family of organs
Death by a berserk body-clock
That no repairman can fix
Forty years of dependable dates
With my most feminine old friend
Have become surprise visits
No calls first
Just discourteous drop-ins
Surely an Emily Post violation
But not nature's
Her way of surviving the fittest
Giving babies I'll never have
To my daughters
And their daughters
My body rebels against the bias
Fights a noble retirement battle
Opposed by hormonal brigades
A futile war
That mutates into mourning
Evolves to acceptance
Changes to contentment
Satisfaction when the pink stain
announces its cramps
Leakage
Smell
Messy sex
On someone else's paper
|
First publication credit of the poem belongs to "Black Spring
Review"
with subsequent publication to the following:
"Eclectic Woman"
issue of "The Sweet Annie & Sweet Pea Review" and the
chapbook,
MIDLIFE MUSE by Ellaraine Lockie.
MIDLIFE MUSE can be ordered
for $4.00 from Poetry
Forum, 5713 Larchmont Dr., Erie, PA 16509, (814) 866-2543.
It was the First
Place winner in Poetry Forum's 2000 poetry chapbook contest.