The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Our Mothers' Closets~ By Evelyn Katz

5/16/2013

2 Comments

 
In our mothers’ closets, way in the corners, behind stacks of old vinyl and worn out shoes, we keep a box. Ticket stubs from movies we don’t remember seeing, dried flowers from boys whose images are only traces settled in the attics of our minds.

In our mothers’ closets live our first kisses, pictures from the prom. Dusty photo albums, pages yellowed and worn, Love’s Baby Soft scented letters bound by the same red ribbons we wore to our first day of kindergarten.

We are women. As girls we watched our mothers cut crusts from our fathers’ toast, chiding us for leaving ours uneaten.

We are women. We still see our mothers’ shadows as they wiped the last dinner dishes dry and slid behind bathroom doors latched against us.

We are women. As teenagers we talked the night away, planning our lives through phone lines, naming unborn children, doodling our names in combinations with boys who still pulled our hair in math classes.

We are women. In our childhood bedrooms we began the collections that would someday be relegated to our mothers’ closets. We went to sleep wearing football jerseys breathing in the sweat and cologne of the boys who chased us down the hallways and as we drifted dreamily away, we wondered fleetingly why hours later we never heard the bathroom doors unlatch, especially when we knew there were piles of wrinkled clothes waiting to be ironed.


Author Bio:
I write because I had a grandmother who once lived and told me I can.
2 Comments
Annmarie Maldonado
5/16/2013 05:44:42 am

Wow, so proud!! Especially with it being this poem! I always new one day!!!

Reply
Mary Lamanna
5/16/2013 10:04:31 am

Thank you for sharing this lovely poem and bringing back memories for me of my own mother's closet.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org