monday

my mother is folding laundry
and smoking a long cigarette from a beat-up pack of salem ultra light 100's.

the sky outside is changing colors fast
and she folds the t-shirts first - red, then green, orange and then brown.
she moves on to the jeans, each a different shade of blue
depending upon age, gender, ownership.

dad’s are the most worn,
probably because of all the hours he spends
pretending to fix the buick.
its still not running.
the car sits there with its really comfortable bench seats,
kind of like an ugly sofa we’ve tossed out into the yard.

i heard my mom talking on the phone the other day
with her best friend janet, and that’s what she said.
then my mom asked if janet had any leads on a new
or kinda used car for not too much money.

right now, mom’s sharing a small maroon honda
with my dad. it always works out but its just annoying to deal with.
this last part she doesn’t say to janet on the phone,
though its pretty clear that this is how she feels.

the cigarette caught on the edge of mom’s dry bottom lip
offers dangerous approval to the task at hand (folding clothes)
as she tells me about her day,
about how these god-awful fuckers are stealing money from her and dad and her boss is a stuttering pencil thin prick.

i rub my finger in a counterclockwise swirl
on the beige tablecloth, trace it back,
and swirl again - my eyes a sleepy green.

i sing a song, reminding mom of our monday evening dining ritual.
dad works late on monday night,
and my brother is away at college in boston,
so we always eat hamburger helper.
my favorite is the cheeseburger kind.

“uh huh,” mom quietly responds, catching onto my impending boredom.
the cigarette nods more furiously when mom moves her lips
and an elbow-shaped ash flips off the tip,
floats briefly in the air, and then her exhale scatters it around the room.

a piece lands on my arm
and i think, oh there is a piece of ash on my arm.
i brush it away, but it makes a faint white line
down the sleeve of my black sweatshirt.

i stand up, move to the kitchen and pour myself a tall glass of water.