She smoked
She smoked,
my mother did, a LOT!
I never liked it.
To me she looked like
of those “molls” in
detective magazines,
later on television,
cigarette dangling
from the corner
of her mouth
acrid smoke
curling up (she didn’t inhale)
choking the air
as she played cards
or worked
at her desk.
To be sure,
there were “issues”
between husband and wife.
Mid-Great Depression
Dad out of work
or out of town for work
alone with
kids to manage
clothe and feed
with what?
So she smoked.
Small family Jewish
grocer let bills run up.
Smoking a comfort?
Housedresses, nothing new,
shoes needed for kids.
Teeth bad, pull them.
Children need dental care.
Sharp tongue cutting
no whining
“Just get on with it”.
Hurt, not understanding
we sulked. She smoked
Smoking and smoking
taking in relatives
with lost jobs, lost homes,
sick or in need, managing somehow
depressed (never admit it)
feeling put down,
frustrated, underrated
and underappreciated
never accomplished anything
worthwhile with her
college degree.
But, in her own way,
a saint in a housedress
Smoking away the grief.
Categories:
molls, addiction, endurance, mother, perspective,
Form: Free verse
in the 1940 detective movies
leading men were called gumshoes
women were referred to as molls, dames, chicks or dolls.
it was acceptable for the men to swat a woman’s bottom.
She giggled and acted like she enjoyed it.
it was so normal some of us little ones did not know how wrong it was.
Categories:
molls, nostalgia,
Form: Free verse
The Rodents’ Bane
Sphynx cats
jinx rats
A Most Unlikely Scenario
Shorthairs
court bears
Cat Catalogers
Shorthairs
sort wares
When Cats Go Formal
Bombay
Prom Day
Tranquil Lost Feline
Calm stray
Bombay
Detain the Cat
Waylay
Bombay
What Gangsta Cats Do
Rag Dolls
Snag Molls
A Cat Oration
Birman
Sermon
The Howling Sensations
*Main Coons
Feign tunes
Wet Mongrel Cat
Soggy
moggy
Sept. 15, 2022
for a Brian Strand Premiere Choice Poetry Contest
*Note: This is name for a strong, large longhaired cat that is also very sweet. Maybe it's only known about in the USA??
Categories:
molls, cat,
Form: Footle
People like the Lord are watching you
The men who follow Jesus cared
You're constantly on an audition
And everyone you ever knew
Will eventually be there
It's hard to live under scrutiny
Or dissected under judging eyes
You can see why the people cry mutiny
While enjoying the safety
Of being paralyzed
How am I supposed to keep moving
With all this heat following me?
I been chained to radiators
By molls who said they were mine
They all said they'd meet me later
And we'd run away to the land
Of sweet grapevines
Ya gotta be wary they tell you
'cause they're workin' both sides of the mirror
Under the hot spot of seduction,
Your contrived confession
Comes crystal-clear
How am I supposed to keep movingHn
With all this heat following me?
Categories:
molls, anxiety, forgiveness, humorous, inspirational,
Form: Lyric
Years down the road we will be known as flappers
In 1929 we are known as outrageous open hussies
Shunned by the church-y women, loved by the nightclub crowd
We are to be feared and adored, yin and yang, laugh at our frivolities.
Play girls, fun-lovers, life enthusiasts, dancers, singers, swingers.
We giggle and jiggle our way into your hearts, or out of them.
Depending on how deeply indoctrinated you want to be.
Mesmerizing some, scaring your wives and girlfriends.
We have bobbed our hair, shortened our skirts, and we have sass.
We are tired of the hum drum staidness of life, we are ready for action
Retaining our youth; yet you are keeping daughters and molls from us.
We live our truth, reminding daisies to be themselves and shine.
Categories:
molls, nostalgia,
Form: Prose Poetry
My life's been fine without you -- really has.
A Belgian bar has opened in the square,
and weekends, we do beer and tapas there,
then Malcolm and Elaine's place, for some jazz
and Jamieson's. May in Cortes -- what a blast!
Right now, I'm growing sideburns! Summer hols,
we'll all dress up as bandits and their molls!
I've never laughed so much. Who needs the past?
Yet sometimes, when the lake frowns in the rain,
or April squalls tug blossoms from the trees,
I think of you. This sadness preordained,
like plane trees pollarded, proud amputees
shorn of their plumes, emerges, stark and strange:
and I know then. Some things will never change.
Categories:
molls, romantic,
Form: Sonnet
We work-to-rule, we're molls,
We are not unfeeling dolls,
Molls don't make extra cuppas for you,
We write our own rules to suit,
It's up to you not to be rude,
I say, "Pappa don't preach!" to you,
Molls write lots of rules,
They've got their own cooking school,
We cook when we want to,
The world is not run to for you,
Yes, molls now have work-to-rules.
Categories:
molls, feelings, humorous, woman,
Form: Free verse
(To the tune of "Like a Virgin").
Not a virgin,
Queen of the molls,
Not a virgin,
So I've been told,
Not a virgin,
I'm like, well, old,
Not a virgin,
Please stop your moans,
Not a virgin,
That's why men are alone,
Not a virgin,
I'm like, well, old,
Not a virgin,
So I've been told,
Not a virgin.
You sound like a git,
Get over it!!!
Categories:
molls, fun, woman,
Form: Free verse
Eat shrooms til everythings pretty, pop molls til your caring and witty.
Smoke trees til your chill as the breeze, and drink to forget what you need.
Do all the trippys to think like the hippie, make sure your an expert and not be so picky.
Just let me know when your drug trip is over, so I can tell you how you are when your sober
Categories:
molls, growing up, people, recovery
Form: Free verse
on confessional summer streets of city
the heat scums in like a churlish treacle
in back of the five and dime bodies drift by
cotton barely captures their hides of leather
mock they come feasting their eyes the uninspired the unenjoyed
skin like twined roe on inelegant hilltables of humping asphalt
the fullstomached and the barrenous
the stubblegaited and released obese
the adolescent chics swaddled in microshortshorts and sons and
daughters of their own walk on
sidewalks clotted with dirge
dry bubblegum bandages
and weeping condoms caked with sad and
botched hotdog stands and others hold hands
watching over out back of the fiveandime
clouds scuff in like oldtime washerwomen
scrubbing the spanknew parking meters
and all the cops are at the donut shops
notary publics down to the liquorstore
picking up twofours and molls awol from the junior high
and cocksure dudes drabbed in deadlettered sweatpants
cruising spineblown bars for commandment cheaters
in lunging games of catchascatchcan and
here
on Church Street
one young woman smiling arm in arm
with an elder mother set as a seal upon her heart
and all my transepts spires and bells
rejoice
Categories:
molls, inspirational,
Form: Free verse
Frances Albert Sinatra
Was said to have ties to the mafia
Backstage bullets flew as old blue eyes crooned
Gangsters fell as their gun molls swooned
Entry for Catie Lindsay's Clerihew Contest
Categories:
molls, funny
Form: Clerihew