A POEM from The Horse???
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238268)
Walnut Creek, California
December 2, 2019 6:45pm CST
About 20 years ago, I hit a short story and poetry writing stage. This was when I worked as a child psychologist in Oakland CA, and was never sure I'd survive to the next day.
One of the poems I wrote was about watching a mother beat her child with a belt. It wound up in a glossy poetry magazine called the Santa Barbara Review.
I can't believe I'm putting a poem on MyLot. Maybe it's because I'm grumpy about spending a whole day on hold on the phone. But it's just a slice of life in the United States:
Cheeseburger
You want something on your cheeseburger baby?
car pulls in like mama's being cautious
Sure do medium rare and she smiles at me
and then to workboots:
Sorry baby we don't take no hundred dollar bills
it's just company policy
but it's all workboots has
as mama's little girl explores the parking lot
McDonalds Colonal they all the same baby
and pig tails checks me out just a little bit afraid
That's OK, I'll change it out of my purse
and workboots smiles and looks for the tip jar
Cheeseburger! Everything! Right in my ear
but I'm a but off to the side
Cheeseburger! I hear you! and we're laughing
as she says three fourteen baby, and then the rhythmic sound
slap slap slap
and the slow driver saying:
Get your ass back in that car
Did I tell you you could get out of that car?
and the sound is like a railroad train moving slowly
slap slap slap
and where in the hell did she get that belt?
Because it's just there like it's always been there
and the little girl crying, frozen
as I get my change back
right on time
Two dollars and eleven cents
slap slap slap
And then she's in the back seat
and the belt is gone
and her sister's looking straight ahead
with no expression
and the big tear on pigtail's left cheek
a perfect silhouette
and I can see right through it
to the street beyond
through this little drop of honey
And I know her little bottom isn't really hurt that badly
and I'm standing there
with my cheeseburger
7 people like this
7 responses
@mlgen1037 (29882)
• Manila, Philippines
3 Dec 19
@TheHorse great! Do they have many customers?
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238268)
• Walnut Creek, California
3 Dec 19
@mlgen1037 They did. But I think they eventually got shut down. Not sure why.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (49753)
• India
3 Dec 19
Nicely written! You can post poems more often!
May be some shortening will be fine. So what was that year?
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86568)
• United States
3 Dec 19
How terrible (the story, not your poem). Y’know, my mother never beat me. I was spanked, always when I did something wrong, and always with an explanation of why I was getting spanked and what I did wrong. One year my dear mother of blessed memory asked what I was thankful for at Thanksgiving time, and my response was NOT having to fear her the way kids today seem to have to fear their parents.
It’s heartbreaking, and it makes me realize how blessed I truly am.
1 person likes this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
3 Dec 19
left holding, not the bag but what had been in the bag!
1 person likes this
