It was Sunday morning:
the Jersey Shore and
breakfast in a diner.
As I recall, my step-daughters
were all three with us.
It was a happy moment.
No one had been disagreeable,
No early morning fussing.
Something -- perhaps one of the “girls” --
had teased my mother-in-law
Into antic and comic behavior:
She suddenly took out her set of false teeth-!!!
I thought of my own long-gone Nana,
once laughing so hard her teeth flew --
from straight out of her mouth to the floor--
as though to speak magical words.
Splashing in the bathtub at the time,
I'd prattled some long forgotten rhyme
that amused her and her teeth clattered
to the floor like a chattering set of cartoon teeth
while Nana laughed on without them,
joyfully laughing with me.
My mother-in-law
was likewise amused
by each and all of her grandchildren,
and such bond is celebrated today,
among the wonders of the world.
Inspired by my mother-in-law
I told a story
apropos of nothing beyond itself
about a friend having said to me:
(the context is gone)
“You live in your head.”
I will never forget
My father-in-law, as
the smile I could count on
slid from jaw to floor,
with all of his teeth intact.
My story was inappropriate:
I lived in my head and
the intimacy he saw
between me and his son
must have been a lie.
But it was not;
after all don‘t we all
live in our heads?
But I never could explain myself.
Myriad are the coincidences
not mutually exclusive
and in those moments
the sleight of hand
holds the magic of memory,
chattering mnemonic
cartoon teeth
clattering to the floor.
Circa 1990-1991