Homework
Emily Gordon
The aunts who taught you to wrap the gifts
the grandmother who crimped the crust
the sister who said no one would marry a girl
who chewed cereal like that
Who was it for, who was it for
the rough washcloth on the skin
the hundred brushstrokes before bed
the cedar for trespassing moths
the hand-washing shaped and laid flat to dry
the fitted sheets wrestled to the shelf
the slip stitch on the hem
The spooled thread and the unknotted chain
the thank-you notes and the clipped dry leaves
the closing of the summer house
the small curls pinned into the ponytail
the close-clipped nails and the trimmed split ends
the lotion on shaved bare legs in spring
who was it for?
The aunts who taught you to wrap the gifts
the grandmother who crimped the crust
the sister who said no one would marry a girl
who chewed cereal like that
Emily Gordon grew up in Wisconsin and California and is a longtime journalist and editor. Her poems have also appeared in The Baffler, The Women’s Review of Books, Painted Bride Quarterly, Indie Soleil, HIV Here and Now, Transition, and the Toronto Globe & Mail. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a sound improviser for the Dirty Little Secrets show in New York City.