She Marveled
Mother marveled
as she listened to Dad read the want ads
in the New York Review of Books,
someone in braces seeking
a mid-day rendez-vous on Wall Street,
another into good looks, money,
with a knowledge of Turkish
and Buxtehude’s Magnificat
…My God!
What they want! mother exclaimed
raising her shoulders
with a gasp of amazement,
knowing compromise well
not married to a Hollywood star
or a saint
I’d picked up the publication on the subway
not knowing romance was advertised
on the back pages,
and I pondered the brilliant theories and disquisitions
promised on the cover’s attractive headlines
Judy subscribed to the review
I was not focused as she
a bit nervous like my father
But I gave it a try
took it as a sign when I found it
and brought it home
not thinking Dad would read it,
he with just a grade school education
and fast with numbers like the Chinese with abacus
I’ll say no more about my parents
how their marriage was not made in heaven
with nothing exotic, forbidden,
or filled with pre-baroque music,
but how it got me here, I who am no angel,
I who brought laughter’s revelation into the home