Mama always did the dishes
after I made them dirty.
I\u2019d carry as many as I could in one big trip
to the kitchen sink.
Pretended I was a waitress
ballerina, plates on my palm
balanced with empty glasses on top.
Only a handful
of times did they fall and shatter.
Mama\u2019d scream like I deeply hurt her
only child, or spilled hot tea on her foot.
I\u2019d pli\u00e9 in fear and horror
in lieu of running away
to a small town where I could change
my name, be a big time
waitress when I grow up,
get all the Coke I want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mama always did the dishes
while I thirsted
for something to do
other than watch TV or watch her
sob and do the dishes.
I listened to her sing
songs from childhood
more loudly than usual
over rushing water and
my high-pitched babblings
I\u2019d thought of myself
or heard on the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mama always did the dishes.
I danced and brought my own blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mama always did the dishesafter I made them dirty.I\u2019d carry as many as I could in one big tripto the kitchen sink.Pretended I was a waitressballerina, plates on my palmbalanced with empty glasses on top.Only a handfulof times did they fall and shatter.Mama\u2019d scream like I deeply hurt heronly child, or spilled hot tea on … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-Eu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2511,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Amber Weinstock holds a BA in Literature from Binghamton University. After teaching in South Korea and traveling for over a year, she’s returned to Brooklyn, NY to pursue art things and fight the urge to float away like a helium balloon again.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"