Mama's House by Dorothy K. Fletcher

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Mama's House
by
Dorothy K. Fletcher

My mama’s house

has childless rooms

quiet halls—

Mama’s filled her emptiness

with furniture and plush decor

from magazines. Soft pastels coat

all her walls like icing

little kids would love

to lick. The overstuffed sofa sits

there like a fat lady’s lap—

soft and inviting—ready for stories.

Vases instead of jelly jars

grace the polished tables

and silk flowers blossom

instead of child-harvest weeds.

Only the ghosts of memories

remain—hidden and sought—

behind cleaned chairs

and always closed closets.

Mama is very rarely

in her house anymore

to enjoy the beauty of things
she had imagined important. Once.

From Zen Fishing and Other Southern Pleasures (Ocean Publishing, 2005).

This poem first appeared in the International Poetry Review (Volume XVII, No. 2)

Used with the author’s permission.

Dorothy K. Fletcher retired in 2007 after 35 years of teaching English in Jacksonville, Florida. Her poetry and articles have appeared in nearly a hundred publications, and she is the author of five books. Dorothy lives with her husband, Hardy, close to their children and grandchildren. A former columnist for The Florida Times Union, Dorothy's anecdotes about life in Jacksonville in the '50s, '60s, and '70s earned her a Preservation Award from the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission in 2011. Learn more about her at www.dorothykfletcher.com.

Joe Sottile:
"...silk flowers blossom" speaks volumes. Wonderful poem, especially the last third. Bravo!
Posted 05/07/2012 09:07 AM

Constancec:
This poem so amply sums up what a number of us "grandparents" have to say. I keep telling my daughter that these are the happiest of her life, raising my grandson. But like me, she probably won't realize it until she too has "house beautiful".
Posted 05/07/2012 05:32 AM

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