Saturday, February 13, 2016

Eleanor Levine

Daddy and the Cicadas

When Daddy was dying
he watched the Mets
“Been there, done that,” he said
like the kids in school

Now he eats cicadas
like a wild bandit
when they crawl on the ground
every 17 years

Daddy likes Archie and Edith
though Edith died at 90
sitting in front of the TV
with him and Mommy

They were discussing politics
Humphrey was nominated
the police beat Jerry Rubin
with a baton in 1968

I worry about Daddy
stuck in the ground
with no Worcester sauce
to put in his tomato juice

“Daddy and Mommy,”
we’d say at home
back from college
or a trip to New York

When Daddy died,
he met the cicadas
watching the Mets

after 17 years.

* * *
Eleanor Levine's writing has appeared in Fiction, Evergreen Review, Fiction Southeast, Dos Passos Review, Monkeybicycle, Barely South Review, The Denver Quarterly, Pank, The Toronto Quarterly, Barrelhouse, Intima, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Kentucky Review, Juked, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Crack the Spine, Thrice Fiction, Tulane Review, and The MacGuffin; forthcoming work in SRPR (Spoon River Poetry Review). Her short story, "The Jew Who Became a Nun," was nominated by Menacing Hedge for Best of the Net 2015. Eleanor’s poem, “Daddy and the Cicadas,” appears in her poetry collection, Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria, which will be released by Unsolicited Press on February 29, 2016.
 

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