What My Family Never Talked About
Why my mother came home from the hospital
with a flat stomach and put the bassinet
back in the attic. When my Aunt Ginna
divorced Uncle Charlie—they showed up together
at family gatherings for decades, so how
would we know? Or the summer my sister
was planning her wedding—what went on
in the spare room so late at night
with our handsome Australian houseguest.
When my nephew first started walking,
he held a coat hanger straight-armed
in front of him, as if he were dowsing
for water. But no one ever mentioned
autism or suggested that his behavior
was anything other than fine.
If I asked my mother—gone 22 years
now—to please explain, she would use
the same gesture employed when a fly
dared to enter the kitchen where she
was preparing our dinner—as if to say Nothing
could be less important. Now please
set the table and call in your brothers to eat.
*
Sue Ellen Thompson is the author of six books, most recently SEA NETTLES: NEW & SELECTED POEMS (Grayson Books, 2022) and the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (1st ed.). She has won a Pushcart Prize, the Pablo Neruda/Nimrod Hardman Award, two individual artist’s grants from the State of CT, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Thompson teaches at The Writer’s Center in Washington, D.C., and received the 2010 Maryland Author Award from the Maryland Library Association.