Three by
Mather Schneider
MARTYR
The four-legged metal laundry tank
with the hand-crank wringer
is better than the old washboard
but not much.
Just ask mom.
You can find her on Sundays
up to her elbows in underwear
rank as bottom-feeding
flatfish, or turning our filthy overalls
through the pinch-fisted rollers,
her tomato-peeling hands
raw, nails yellow and swirling
as after-water. She’ll tell you
the truth, if you ask her
while she puts our limp
wet hides to billow
and dry between
the twin crosses.
AT THAT POINT
I like to be in the woods in the evening
while mom and dad sit
on the picnic table
beneath the psycho-looking sycamore
after work is done,
in the thin line
between loathing each other
and snoring side by side,
in that barely breathable margin
of black cricket truce,
them drinking beer or wine,
the cherries of their cigarettes
like the distant torches of a search party
and me out in the trees
at that point
where I can hear their voices
but just a little bit farther
and I cannot, walking
that tight rope.
THE JEEP
Dad trades a goat
and two bags of feed
for an army surplus Jeep
from a man with a wandering eye
and guineas in his kitchen.
I think it’s cool, like G.I. Joe
but mom says he is no longer a child.
He parks it in the west field
and then can’t get it started again,
spends the whole summer working on it
prone on a plywood slab
against the prickly pears
pounding his heels in the dirt.
Even when he crawls out
we look at his feet while he talks.
One day a drop of gas falls
into his ear to the drum
and he bellows as his skull
comes up hard against the manifold
before staggering to the barn
and crashing in like a drunk.
I hold on to the loft ladder
as mom takes his head in her lap
and pets him and hushes him.
She dribbles water from a cup
into his ear, whispers it’ll
be ok…we’ll be all right…
promises she wants so bad
to come out sure and strong and true
but only choking
as they break
like supper plates, like toys.
Mather Schneider’s poetry and prose have appeared in many places since 1994. He has several books available and lives in Mexico.