I guess Methodist you could say,
struggling to remember more
than echoes of crowded church basements
& Jesus Loves Me & flannel-
board stories told by high-voiced pious cousins
and black-veiled made-up aunts
who always dusted their chairs before sitting down.
.
& Grandma’s—on Monday, the wash; Tuesday,
the ironing (two whole days attending to
maintenance of a meager cache of
linens and clothing, each piece handled
to last, mended when it seemed tempted
to fray away); Wednesdays, the baking, bread
and pies of whatever fruits were in season;
Thursdays, groceries, a trek to the Red & White; Fridays,
cleaning for whatever company might show; Saturdays
the odds & ends of tasks & maybe a trip to town;
and Sundays again
with the old ladies in the cold, damp suspicions
of basement rooms. Everyday there were other
things too, but set within an order…methodically,
& the men out there somewhere doing whatever
men do, and coming home on time for meals
and naps, and always seeing that the women
had a ride to and from church on Wednesdays
& Sundays & feeling saved themselves doing
their duties so regularly
.
& Mom in a factory, day in day out; life unorganized,
guilty Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, guilty
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, and especially guilty
Sunday & no man
to drive her to and from
.
So, yes, I guess you’d say Methodist.
At least that’s what I most
remember.
Sandra Inskeep-Fox is a poet, an independent scholar and co-owner of Dorley House books in Clear Spring, Maryland. Sandra writes poetry, short stories, essays, and keeps voluminous journals. She has been published in the Chaffin Review, Facet, Cimarron Review, Commonweal Magazine, The Big Two-Hearted Review, the Aurorean, the Virginia Woolf Miscellany and others. She won several contests, including the 1st annual Marquette Monthly Short Story contest, and received Honorable mention in the Best of Ohio writers contests in 2001, 2004 and 2005. She is currently working to complete a manuscript on the creative process of Virginia Woolf and a manuscript of her own Bloomsbury-inspired poetry.