18.30 RETRACTION TO MY "CONCEPTION"

18.30 RETRACTION TO MY “CONCEPTION”

In April, the most dedicated (or most insane) of poets commit to 30/30: writing a poem a day for 30 days in honor of National Poetry Month. Here, I will post the seedlings of this dedicated insanity. I don’t promise they’ll be good, but I promise to show up. Hi there. Hold my hand?

RETRACTION TO MY “CONCEPTION”

He didn’t propose
with a ring in a bucket
of Cracker Jacks.

Or, he did.
To his first wife, Janet.
But I didn’t find out about her

until much later.
He proposed to my mother
in a Christmas card

even though he is Jewish.
Even though he wouldn’t be there
to watch her blink Yes.

I am a writer
because my father
spent all his romance

in one place.
In this book, my mother
gets the Cracker Jacks—

But she is so busy
bobbing in laughter
that she accidentally

swallows the ring.
In this book, my father
is a fisherman.

He casts a line
down her throat and reels
out an infant.

She has my name.
She is enough
to keep them

together. She is
the first baby
never to cry.