1945

Krieg und Grieg

By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - Jun 11, 2015

1945

dark green shades
drawn to the sills
before supper

Granny reads a letter
with rectangular holes in it

by the brown picket fence
a row of
tomato plants

sirens

leave the big tin truck
in the dirt by the stoop
come in the house

Mummy mashes an orange bead
into a block of white
margarine
makes butter

she sits on the toilet
painting her legs

parents in armchairs
quiet
by the radio

one summer noon
Mummy
standing
wringing her hands
at her breast
wishing for someone
to talk to

I'm here
O you don't understand

The War is over

but not the terror
of Grieg in A minor
which Daddy conducts
as I leaf through Life magazine
Norman Rockwell's
two page technicolor soldier
whose extended left arm
pours blood to the ground

in the tub
can you ask Daddy
to not play that music