I have been her kind. – Anne Sexton
Who doesn’t trade her scholarship for cucumber facials,
herbal essences, or swap recipes and gossip.
Whose wrist doesn’t drip with bling and grandmother’s
wedding ring is worn on her right hand.
Who trades sapphires for Cape Cod
earrings she buys antiquing.
Who does it wrong all wrong, like clumsy freshman
fingers on a manual typewriter.
Who immortalizes lines like, It’s a woo-hoo day,
I don’t have time for green bananas.
Who knows that to write is to transgress,
which means that some artists draft on phonebooks.
Who doesn’t go from her father’s to her
husband’s house but makes a different bargain.
Whose car breaks down, a boyfriend leaves,
a miscalculation means eviction.
Who knows it takes a helluva good man
to be better than none.
Laura Sweeney facilitates Writers for Life in central Iowa. She represented the Iowa Arts Council at the First International Teaching Artist’s Conference in Oslo, Norway. She is the associate editor for Eastern Iowa Review.