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TITLE: Music of Mothers
By Patrick McClure
11/15/05
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Traffic slithers,

Sideways and forwards, slowly

A blue Explorer carries three

Children, two strapped to carseats

The other, eager in the front,

tying soccer cleats

A mom juggles agendas

Practice at 3 o’clock for one

Another’s nap shortly after

Snack, play date, practice pick-up

Dinner, bath, bedtime, Oprah rerun

Leftovers with Rick when he returns

Tired from work, and hungry

But it’s only 2:57 as she hums softly to the car stereo



At the light a mother crosses

Two-seat stroller with arms and heads

Dangling out, a bottle dropped halfway across

Two more follow behind, playing tag

In the busy intersection, aloof and innocent

She calmly corrals the children

Sidewalk safe and continues on

Groceries hanging off every handle and compartment

And both forearms

Her mother’s house becomes a zoo

A playground

Hers’ and neighbors’ kids ascend the

Stairwells like flatground

Descend like slides and make noise

Some would call shrill

She calls melodic

Pasta feeds nine

Bedtime somewhere after dark

Shoes kicked off with Jazz

Playing on the radio, her

hands sweeping dirt clods out the screen door

Lips whistling, her bare feet on the cold linoleum floor
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