My father gives up the red Ram Dodge
for a dark-haired woman, age nineteen.
My mother gives up her job at the A&P.
Steetcars pass, children are born.
My mother is telling me not to cry,
my father weeps.
I marry, become unemployed.
My car gets old
My husband's smooth fingers slip out of my hand.
My brother arrives in a Thunderbird
with a blonde and a son.
No one has cash.
My sister gives birth
and my sister gives birth
and my sister gives birth.
We are little, we write our names
on each other's backs in soap
in the steamy bath, then wipe them away.
We are grown and we give up our rosaries.
My father steadies his hand,
the letter arrives.
My mother spills mysteries into the telephone,
her kitchen is ceaselessly green.
We love ourselves, we all sink back
in the deep red seats.

Cecilia Woloch is the author of three collections of poetry, Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem, Late: Poems (American Poets Continuum)and Sacrifice. Woloch is the founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild. Active in the Los Angeles literary scene for more than twenty years, she conducts poetry workshops for children, young people and adults throughout the United States and Europe, from public schools and universities to prisons and hospitals. Her community involvement includes launching a poetry outreach program with Communities in Schools of Atlanta and collaborating in the creation of International Living's first Paris Poetry Workshop. She maintains homes in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

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