Poem-A-Day: Getting Close by Victoria Redel

Getting Close by Victoria Redel     Because my mother loved pocketbooks I come alive at the opening click or close of a metal clasp.   And sometimes, unexpectedly, a faux crocodile handle makes me    weep.   Breathy clearing of throat, a smooth arm, heels on pavement, she    lingers, sound tattoos.   I go to the thrift store to feel for bobby pins caught in the pocket    seam of a camel hair coat.   I hinge a satin handbag in the crease of my arm. I buy a little    change purse with its curled and fitted snap.   My mother bought this for me. This was my mother's.   I buy and then I buy and then, another day, I buy something else.   In Paris she had a dog, Bijou, and when they fled Paris in 1942    they left the dog behind.   When my mother died on February 9, 1983, she left me.   Now, thirty years later and I am exactly her age.   I tell my husband I will probably die by the end of today and all day he says, Are you getting close, Sweetheart? And late in the afternoon, he asks if he should buy enough filet of sole for two.   From a blue velvet clutch I take out a mirror and behold my lips in    the small rectangle.   Put on something nice. Let him splurge and take you out for    dinner, my mother whispers on the glass.        Copyright © 2013 by Victoria Redel. Used with permission of the author.     About This Poem "This was a poem written as I tried to write another poem. My mother often shows up this way, pushing up in the cracks and lapses of other poems. I am always surprised by the way my mother lives in me and how much--30 years after her death--I am still talking to her, inventing her, feeling her shape me."   --Victoria Redel Most Recent Book by Redel Woman Without Umbrella (Four Way Books, 2012)   June 27, 2013 Victoria Redel is the author of three books of poetry, the most recent of which is Woman Without Umbrella (Four Way Books, 2012). She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. She also currently serves as vice president of PEN America. Related Poems The Visit by Jason Shinder Mother by Lola Ridge Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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