beth gylys

Renovations After My Mother-In-Law’s Funeral

Joan Linehan Forsthoefel, 1928-2016                                  

I will make this better—
this ceiling turned a delicate

shade of grease, the wobbly fanlight
hung at its center, glass globe gone,

single bulb swaying between
blades stenciled with someone’s

attempted nod to regality:
pale gold scepter and fleur de lis

nestled in scrolled swirls. I pry off the filthy
strip of gray rubber glued to the bottoms

of the walls—the poorest cousin
to baseboards—scrape wallpaper

that must have once seemed quaint:
pictures of basil, rosemary, and thyme

labeled, charted, and wreathed
by floral swirls. You are gone,

but we have freshly painted plaster,
real baseboards whitely plumb,

the new white fanlight’s fabricated wood
spinning to blur with the flick

of a switch, and I think how you would clap
and crow to see the pictures

of before and after, think how what I did
you loved and loved me still

if I did nothing, how all
we did was better because you lived.

Corn Dogs and Mysteries of Ashtabula

When my friend calls at nearly one a.m.
thinking I’m awake and stewing,
we talk corn dogs in Ashtabula—
maybe the only food you can find there. 

Thinking I’m awake and stewing,
she’s just back from dinner in Ashtabula.
Maybe the only food you can find there:
corndogs or pizza, a pint of Schlitz light. 

She’s just back from dinner in Ashtabula.
She won’t tell me who she ate with—
corndogs or pizza, a pint of Schlitz light.
She asks questions and gives no answers.

She won’t tell me who she ate with.
She laughs and it’s like a secret.
She asks questions and gives no answers.
I am almost too tired to wonder. 

She laughs and it’s like a secret.
I think about her driving home after midnight.
I am almost too tired to wonder.
Late 50s, her husband dead five years.

I think about her driving home after midnight—
all the creeps in trucks on Route 90.
Late 50s, her husband dead five years,
who is she seeing in Ashtabula? 

Creeps in trucks on Route 90?
We talk corn dogs in Ashtabula.
Who is she seeing in Ashtabula
when my friend calls at nearly one a.m.?