Character Studies
Lisa and I stand
in the back of the church
while everyone else mimes
praying for Grandfather’s soul.
She points to a lanky boy of uncertain parentage
whose bow tie has settled at a rakish
angle over his burgeoning Adam’s apple.
She confides that Aunt Kat is actually
his step-mother. The boy having been abandoned
but not one but two parents
before his third birthday.
My 32 year-old sister, Pamela, is refusing to
share a hymnal with our mother’s
second husband.
A dear man whose only sin is loving
our mother when Pamela can not.
Lisa’s tells me her brother, Sam, has seen
our gold-toothed uncle who was rumored
to have been living in the tropics
or maybe he was in prison.
I tell her I don’t believe him.
I keep to myself that I know
where Uncle Mike is
and how unlikely it is that
he will ever leave the state hospital.
Grandfather’s sisters whisper
about his widow’s youngest daughter, Julie.
Her dress is demure enough
but her left hand is naked,
even though the divorce isn’t final.
In the second pew, our youngest cousins,
in matching glitter eye shadow,
wear bright sundresses
and goose bumps on their shoulders.
The bishop scowls at them
but they do not care.
He’s just another old man staring.
Behind the cousins,
there is a man in dirty coke-bottle glasses
who can’t seem to figure out when
to stand and when to bow his head.
I say that he must be the crooked accountant
Grandfather always blamed for his business
troubles. Lisa tells me he’s the gardener.
Published on The Laundry Line, 9 December, 2025.
