Supper

by Marilyn Shelton

My family’s having liver
so I dine at Charlotte’s house
where they drink sweetened tea,
eat turnip greens and skillet cornbread.
Her big brother chases us with a bullwhip.
Her mother is fat.
Her acned sister has a date.
Her daddy’s grimy hands don’t come clean.
He mushes molasses butter on his plate
and whacks Charlotte so hard she tumbles from her chair,
(I did something wrong.) then slathers his goo
(I try it too) on puffy hot biscuits.
He whacks her again for sniffling.
My friend looks at tears in her plate
Outside, locusts scream.
I want to go home
but am afraid to ask.

--MS
©2000 Marilyn Shelton

As an author/editor, Marilyn Shelton published employee and management communications at The Boeing Company for several years and left in the early '90s to pursue writing. She recently completed her third novel, Paradigm Shift, a technology tale of power and greed. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and cat.