Another Funeral in WV
–After Adrienne Rich
Aunt Kay’s tigers were never in a tapestry
and were really just some prescriptions and a tabby
that she called Baby. Baby bit and clawed at her ankles,
one day Kay ended up in the ER needing 11 stitches
and another prescription
but she kept the cat, kept calling it Baby
all night long—Baby, do you want to come in, Baby?
Her daughter high for 30 years, her only grandson
dying since he was born, kidneys and heart
curdling into a terror of death and maybe hatred
though we tell ourselves no it wasn’t ever that
There was a time Kay would have us over to her house
on the dead-end street, make dinner,
insist we go for a walk after
because it was good for us.
If she hadn’t have paid for her funeral before she died
she wouldn’t have gotten one
Her hands folded now and bare
Ask your doctor if tigers might be right for you
Baby. You want to come in, Baby?
–Rita Mae Reese
***
Rita Mae Reese is a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Stegner fellowship in fiction, a “Discovery”/The Nation award, and a Pamaunok Poetry Prize, among other awards. An animated video from the title poem of her first book, The Alphabet Conspiracy, was showcased at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers Midwest Trade Show and can be viewed at ritamaereese.com. Her second book, The Book of Hulga, won the Felix Pollak Prize in 2016. She is a co-director of literary arts at the Arts & Literature Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin.
