TODDLER Dedicated to Michael Marino Wherever He Be deftness By Leanne Grabel Illustration by O n a Friday in November offofSandy In an ecru two-bedroom house Atop aging gold mixed-pile rugs System, and it lacks in d) Mop sonofabitch. Chapter 1 a) Today there is absolutely no chance I am doing the floors. Inother- words, I am not going to vacuum, mop nor sponge up my jewhair, lying knotted and lint-specked, lying moist and mildewish, under corners, in the bathroom, in the house, off of Sandy, that isn’t mine, and never will be. b) This isn’t funny. c) Today there’s no way I am picking up shards of old spinach, all crusted, lying slathered, under corners, in the kitchen, because my mop is not a corners, in the shadows, on the platforms. Joanna! See her stonefaced. See her fear-tinged. She was snappy. See her snappy. d) And my name used to bob up ‘neath those slabs of wordgray. All those slices of life I found irksome. e) Now I’m Mommy in the Hollywood District. With shirley and Alma and Hickie and Flo I’m bringing the Mean Block Age down. f) It was Leonard who said that a baby can tame. And I felt way too brawny and brassy and phobic. g) And my mind was immense in its own desuetude. h) We were bored with our pontification. i) So, I coupled and bore. j) Yes, I heard you all slithering upward. k) No, I coupled and bore. Chapter 2 a) Well, now that you’ve asked, I’ve been having some trouble with my titles. Yeah, my new ones—Mommy and Wife. b) DON’T THEY KNOW WHO I AM??? c) I’m Joanna, I am. And I rode with the best of ’em. Decked out under e) Today I’m not leafing through cookbooks, my fingertips prancing, like round baby dancers in search of some leaf-latticed dinner ensemble. Like a pony, going trotting and snorting across the tiles to the foodbased instruction. f) My baby’s at Paula’s, and, thus, is not stroking my thighs with her fervent beseechment. g) Call the henchmen. Clinton St. Quarterly—Spring, 1988 9 :a n d ac e Bie n e m an
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