Four Poems by Elaine Sorrentino

 

Before and After

My life is measured in befores and afters.

Before slimming down
I was a carefree, kind, jocular teen

After, I was self-aware, guarded, judgmental.

Before marrying the wrong man
I romanticized married life

After, I embraced solitude.

Before children
New Year’s Eve was about partying

After, New Year’s Eve was about staying safe.

Before divorce
the ocean washed my home away

After, home was anywhere my children were.

Before my father died
life was carefree and celebrated

After, the plane hit the building.

Before my forever man
perfect marriage was a fairytale

After, I was loved unconditionally.

Before cancer
I was undone by mean emails

After, I pressed delete.

Irish Twins

When folks inquire about my children
I tell them I was twenty-seven when I had my first,
twenty-nine when I had my second.
This is not the whole story.

I fail to share their birthdays are seven weeks apart
or that my birthday is sandwiched in the middle,
because two years is a more respectable gap
than thirteen months and three weeks.

I omit the part about passion born
out of our Red Sox in the ’86 World Series,
the excitement of witnessing victory after victory…
interrupted when Buckner and Mother Nature surprised us both.

My Hero

She tattooed swooping sideburns
and intricate Irish symbols
in vibrant blues and greens
on her exposed scalp,
for when alopecia knocked.

I couldn’t unhitch the parachute, freefall
I’d choose the wig,
perhaps hair replacement,
but never sterilized needles
with their mandatory repeat performance
every few years.

She never judged,
this maverick
who cuts my aging, thinning locks,
she calls her radiant self a freak.

Godmother Sacked

Stay away from her
they instruct you,
as if divorce
were contagious.

Quietly, they remove
you from my influence
assign a new spiritual overseer,
a deferential one

who follows the rules…
directives powerful enough
to unravel my purpose
and impact my children’s future.

I hope you understand:
sacrificing you
was never my intention.

Elaine Sorrentino has been published in Minerva Rising, Willawaw Journal, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Ekphrastic Review, Writing in a Women’s Voice, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Haiku Universe, Sparks of Calliope, Muddy River Poetry Review, Gyroscope Review, Panoplyzine, Etched Onyx Magazine, and at  wildamorris.blogspot.com.  She hosts the Duxbury Poetry Circle and was featured on a poetry podcast at Onyx Publications.