World's Greatest Woman
I. Present
The cigarettes piled up
in the disposable ashtray—
an elderly woman sits by herself
at a booth in a fast food restaurant,
at times chatting with the other
regulars coming and going while she stays,
glancing down at the newspaper
lying in front of her, or simply
staring out the window.
Her fragile hand shakes the coffee cup
slowly rippling,
a gulp and she’s ready for another cigarette
“Jus’ let me live ‘til he’s born”—
she’d said, just weeks before the birth
of her first grandchild—
and now he’s seven,
sitting across from her
playing with toy soldiers
and slurping from the straw
of a paper cup—
loving her for being a safe
haven from a screaming,
beaten household—
loving her
for spoiling him,
buying him toys and
comic books, providing
him security for once—
the skin on her neck is scarred
with torture—
the blessing of living
through two bouts of
throat cancer was just
as much his as it was
hers.
II. Past
my grandmother said
she met Ronald Reagan
on a California train
in 1940s Hollywood Heyday
asked her to dinner
and considering her hip
jazz musician boyfriend
declined.
-Ryan Wilcox