Keeping Score
The score 983 to 735
he’s quite a bit ahead
(as you can see)
46 points for washing my car
52 for buying me flowers
minus 10 because slightly wilted
I lost 66 points when I called him fuck face
after he watched four hours of women’s
beach volleyball, focused on barely-there bikinis
and 358 when I dropped our tax return in the toilet
but wait, just in
579 points for fixing his phlegmatic computer
saving us a small fortune
I gloat and glee around the room
eternally grateful to You Tube
the god of Fixing All Things
I love this game
but the score suddenly shifts
I lose 937 points for flouncing & swaggering
I collapse on the sofa & swig straight gin
(lose 88 more points)
who cares
stupid ledger
stupid game
Cutting Onions
My husband is cutting an onion with a spoon,
an almost impossible task. I notice
there’s a lock on the drawer with knives,
the first drawer on the left, under the counter.
Is he slow-sliding into dementia? Our kids
are long gone, no need to hide knives, especially
since I just sharpened my Kyoku carving knife
to slice tonight’s roast chicken. What of the row
of wine bottles lined up like empty soldiers?
Did he pour out all that expensive chardonnay?
And where is the thick cotton clothes line
that just arrived from Amazon,
the god of Good Things? I watched
a YouTube video on how to make a clove hitch
that won’t come untied, even under the weight of wet sheets.
Is it time to call Dr. Campbell? Am I losing my husband
to a one-way disease? Could Aricept help?
What of coconut oil or Coral calcium
or maybe twenty jumping jacks a day?
The onion is reduced to a soggy goo.
My husband frowns and tosses it in the trash.
For sure a call to Dr. Campbell first thing in the morning.
Tonight I will drive across the Golden Gate Bridge
and gaze down at the currents of swirling water.
If only I could find my car keys.
Claire Scott
Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, and Healing Muse, among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.
