Tonight's Poet Corner: Two Households
Two Households by Belinda Roddie Two households - not alike at all, actually. One has a married couple with three young kids. They mow their front lawn every morning before the sun comes up. The father is balding, so the sweat runs down his face like his forehead's a solar-powered waterfall. Last I checked, he was still a teller at the bank just down the street. The mother takes all three kids to school while smoking. She smokes three cigarettes each morning, three cigarettes each evening. She is blonde. The kids are blonde. The kids are white. The kids want a puppy. The household with the married couple keeps their television on too loud. The father and mother argue a lot. The father drinks copiously after work: it's always tequila, from the smell of the recycling bin outside. He plays poker with his friends on Sundays. He kisses his friend's wife on Mondays. The mother pretends that the wife doesn't exist. She smokes more, yet she does