This is not a poem about my mother by Patrick T. Reardon (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Series)

This is not a poem about my mother
by Patrick T. Reardon

Roll the oracle bones.
Trace on the brick wall
the outline of the atomic body.
Evidence affection.

Allelu! Allelu!

Make meatloaf with oatmeal.
Unsing the Gloria.
Reprimand pesty cherubim.
Tally the dancer’s errors.
Be not the strange woman.
Quicken.

Memorize the names of 1,186 Greek ships
and one gift horse,
as if members of the family.
Make holy the cocoon.
Hose down the blooded backyard cement.

Allelu! Allelu!

Ignore the yearn.
Swim the solemn, powerful river
without leaving your glass of wine for health.
Wear no ivory nose pin.
Do not visit the doctor for fear.

Sneer at oranges thrown in grief.
Trace your real name
across the page of the unread book of Job
and hide it.

Reject strangeness.
Reject distance.
Reject the open eye.
Reduce the cosmos to the head of a pin.

Draw lines of force and lines of tension
on a blank piece of paper
and throw it in the garbage.
Carry.

Allelu! Allelu!

Chew words written on paper —
sacred words, profane words, how-to directions,
the Refr- page of the phonebook,
the prayer of the faithful,
the fourth page of Howl, a song of the Song of Songs,
the signature of Joan of Arc on her execution order,
a flaming pyre to reduce her skin and bones
to ashes to be dumped in the river,
so never a relic to honor.

Read the misspelling before the lamb class.
Brick the pyramid with the lives of lesser folk
and the hopes of angels.
Cover the bases. Do the math.
Feed. Clothe. Roof.
Deliver.

Refuse the bridesmaids.
Do not eat strange honey.
Take the father’s slap.

Allelu! Allelu!

Do this in memory.

PAINTING: Mother Roulin with Her Baby by Vincent van Gogh (1888).

PHOTO: The author at age six weeks with his mother in Chicago (December 1949).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Patrick T. Reardon is the author of 14 books, including the poetry collections  Requiem for David (Silver Birch Press), Darkness on the Face of the Deep (Kelsay), The Lost Tribes (Grey Book), Let the Baby Sleep (In Case of Emergency) and Salt of the Earth: Doubts and Faith (Kelsay, forthcoming). His memoir in prose poems, Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby, was published by Third World Press with an introduction by Haki Madhubuti. It has been described by Mindbender Review of Books as “the most improbable and intriguing personal account by a writer published in 2022, but quite possibly the most ingeniously imagined memoir by any writer in any given year.” For 32 years, Reardon was a Chicago Tribune reporter, specializing in urban affairs. In 2020, his history book, The Loop: The “L” Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago , was published by Southern Illinois University Press. His website is patricktreardon.com.