Hundred Dollar Poem

Saga of Rowena: Feelin’ no pain O how’ll I ever sustain?

IwishIwishIwishIwerepartofthesky,

TherewouldbeNOBANKZ

No safeway cashiers robbing you blind so you can eat in winter,

No landlords aknockin’ at your door for dollars and cents,

My money has burnt a hole in my mattress…I am cold lonely and

Broke and all I have to sleep on is an ash heap.

Even my refrigerator it sings the blues for butter and eggs

I do not understand these people- these dentists and barbers and

Abortionists.

They take what you have and it is still not enough. They want

Your goddamned money, too.

But I have a heart of gold I’m told

Free of dollars and cents

O Don’t let me be your dollars and cents baby.

I am not a cash crop. You couldn’t buy me at a store.

(They chose me out of a hospital window, Sweetheart, and they

made sure to pick the only one with a rose tattoo)…

O I am but a crazy woman

I would jump out of planes if I could

I’d play my cello till the sky turned yellow

O I am a naked woman in the mountains…they’ve taken my

Body, now they want my soul

I’d go to Venus and Jupiter on my P.F. flyers. I’d wear silver

And pink, paint my body effervescent blue. For you.

I would keep 72 mutt dogs

And 99 beds of roses on my kitchen floor.

I would grow artichoke hearts in my oven at an even temperature

And have faucets that leaked lime daiquiris and green rivers

To the thirst wanton fields.

I would live inside a volcano at sea

And marry a fire swallower to take care of me…

Saga of Rowena: broke and lonely, eating the blues for her dinner…

-RD

Lunch at Perkins Cake and Steak

My grandfather was 87 years old the last time I saw him, 2 years before he died. It was 1982 and he drove a red mustang. On the day after Thanksgiving, with my sister & I in the car already, we picked up Johanna, my late grandmother’s best friend. Both Johanna and my grandfather had dividend checks to put in the bank. Johanna didn’t drive. Her late husband Raymond had been the driver. My grandmother didn’t drive either. I, on the other hand, had driven 500 miles to see my grandfather. My sister flew to Rochester from Philadelphia. My grandfather had been after Johanna to move in with him so that he wouldn’t have to fetch her across town. I think he had other things in mind, too. Johanna would have none of it. She told him so in the car in her thick German accent.

Johanna and our grandfather kept up a loud banter in the front seats while my sister and I sat quietly in the back, taking it all in. Floyd, my grandfather, had a lot to complain about. He was just like that. He liked to say, “It’s hell to get old!” He was not one to look on the bright side of things. I’m not sure how Johanna or my grandmother could stand him. My grandmother’s brother and sister would not let him into their home anymore. He waited outside, either in or on top of his car. He would actually lie on top of the station wagon.

After Floyd and Johanna deposited their dividend checks at each of their banks, we were in for a rare treat- lunch out. Both Johanna and Floyd were hard of hearing so they talked loudly. Again, my sister and I sat quietly across from them. I was 25, she was 32. Halfway through lunch Johanna announced that lunch was on her. My grandfather said since we were his granddaughters, that lunch was on him. They went back and forth, louder and louder, about who was buying lunch, and who had more money. They named their top earning stocks. Johanna had a great deal of New York Power & Electric. She said since she had more money that she’d buy us lunch. All eyes in Perkins Cake & Steak were on us. My sister was trying to slide onto the floor in embarrassment. I really don’t know who ended up paying for our lunch but I told my sister to sit up straight, that this might be the last time anyone argued over who paid for our lunches! 28 years later, I can testify it was.