Plant a Lily by Mike Jewett (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Series)

Plant a Lily
by Mike Jewett

Tin pan alley.
Sundays threaten
beatboxers timpani
& siskins (Spinus
pinus). Dabs of
mustard preened
into drab feathers.

Tiny hymns conga —
groundswells for
roving feet.

You did this to me.

Delicate ragtimes
shatter under
cloudcover
& cold ER
linens.

You did this to me.

Her radiated head
shattered bald
with cloudcover.

Robins shout
cheerio cheerio
outside the ink
of window glass
like Sistine
photography

minefields
of malpractice.

Scantily clad the way
unopened newspapers
are, the way prayer
marinates tongues,
& tonight your sighs
are my gasps.

You did this to me.
An exaltation of
guilt amounting
to an oil slick.
You made me breed

thunder to ward off
your state. Cheerio
cheerio. A tin pan
bedpan clangs
loudest when

overflowing
with coins.

It was all I could do
to put you here.

It was all I could do
to save you.

Bing Crosby whistling
’round and ’round, warm
crackling fire of vinyl
lovingly tracing the curves
of the air from wooden
speakers. Too much

medicine slowly killed
you so fast. My permission
didn’t know. My permission
just didn’t know.

You did this to me you
told me as I held on to you,
a brutal echo thirty years
ago, your last words
last will and testament
last rites

indelible. On the seventh
day you rested and He was
resurrected and we buried you
and today, robins cheerio and
today, their eggs are blue and
today, I will save you and
today, I did this to you and today,

I will plant a lily.

PAINTING: White Lilies by Alex Katz (1966).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This poem came about as my sudden grief of my grandmother’s death 30 years ago, her last words to my mother before she died, and the brutal guilt that has plagued my mother since.

AUTHOR’S PHOTO CAPTION: My mother and maternal grandmother, around 1970.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Jewett is published extensively. He runs a poetry workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. His first books of poetry are due for publication during 2024.