Biting the Dust

My grandmother found a way
to get dirt out of every corner
with a knife wrapped in a soft rag

she even tried to purify me
take away parts of me that didn’t
fit into her time-tested codes

she told my mother not to give me
the remote-control fire engine I wanted
because I should want
baby dolls and baking toys

she told me not to tell the boys
I was promoted to district manager
because they would like it better
if I was the helping secretary

she tried so hard to get me
to sign up for her club
while I was doing my best
to crawl away
along the crooked edges of fairness
where she would never look for me

*

Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist who grew up in Brooklyn, New York and now lives in a forest in Pennsylvania. Her poetry has been published in or is forthcoming in Chiron Review, Invisible City, Ekstasis, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Green Silk Journal, The Write Launch, The Gentian, Across the Margin, October Hill Magazine, Litbreak Magazine, Poemeleon, Beltway Poetry, Foreshadow, and others. Within the last few months one of her poems was nominated for Best of the Net by Cosmic Daffodil, and three poems were nominated for a Pushcart Award by Umbrella Factory Magazine.