Let’s Make a Deal
1. No Big Deal
My dad’s words to me
during a fireside chat—
I need you to keep a promise
you have yet to make,
and you won’t like,
but I need it just the same.
What he neglected to add,
despite how difficult and necessary,
was how this final act would taunt.
2. Easy Deal
My mom also wanted me to help
end her life. I smiled, if only
you had asked me forty years ago…
But when the hospital called at 3am
I did kick in, no tubes, no thanks.
3. Raw Deal
The good daughter did the deed. Twice.
As told. And yet, I can’t shake
the hard fact I was the one, not nature,
not doctors, I alone was responsible
for ending their days, hours, minutes.
4. My Deal
Know this, my children—
for future reference,
it was always the right thing to do.
No big deal.
*
Julie Standig, is the author of two poetry books— The Forsaken Little Black Book, (Kelsay Books) which was nominated for an Eric Hoffer Award and a chapbook, Memsahib Memoirs (Plan B Press). Her poems have appeared in Schuylkill Valley Journal, Gyroscope Review, New Verse News, Macqueen’s Quinterly, ONE ART and elsewhere. A lifetime New Yorker, she now resides in Bucks County with her husband and their springer spaniel.
