I find her in back, mid-game
around the table, playing
two cards at once.
O-9, N-17, G-46…
Mini packets of Cracker Jack
are today’s prize. She has won
three already. Her sweet tooth, suppressed
for decades, now thrives on jelly beans
and ice cream. She doesn’t remember
it’s junk we don’t eat in this house.
As cards are called… B-29. I-43. N-17…
she full-on concentrates. Not long ago,
when invited to play, she had sneered,
For losers. It was awful
when, between reading the Times,
completing the Sunday crossword
and discussing politics, she could still track
her memory loss, could still reflect
on her own mind. Now, like the child
she never allowed herself to be, she thrills
over a complete row of plastic coins.
It should break my heart. But
it’s so much easier to love her
this way.
Lynn Cohen’s novel, A Terrible Case of Beauty, was published by Trebol Press in 2013. She received a Best of the Net nomination from Apricity Magazine in 2023. Lynn has attended various writing conferences, including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Columbia University Summer Writers’ Workshop. After a brief tenure in the Jerusalem Symphony Radio Orchestra, Lynn received a Bachelors in Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, concentrating in double bass performance.