By Karen Kenyon

POTATO

creative commons 2.0

Coming from Ireland
the potato brought its pain,
all those it couldn’t feed —
the slimy boggy earth,
all those who said goodbye.

Landing at the market
in our dusty little town,
brought home in a brown paper bag,
it waits for my mother’s paring knife.
Like the worst of prisoners, of evildoers,
it will be skinned, boiled, beaten.

She will hold the knife and begin
this task she
doesn’t want to complete.

Music of the day
is already playing in her head —
Gershwin, Chopin,
how can she hold it all in
and do this task?
Her fingers yearn for the black and white keys
waiting like an altar in the living room.

But it is dinnertime. She is a wife, a mother,
with no money to have gone to college
to study her love — of notes,
of rhythm, melody, harmony, beauty, emotion.

The potato waits,
its fate set/sealed.

My mother begins
peeling away her hopes,
cutting in half her dreams,
digging out the eyes of promise.

The water is heating,
beginning to boil,
Soon there will be transformation,
holy steam will rise.
Soon, some kind of nourishment will be given,
some kind of sustenance offered.

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Karen Kenyon

Karen Kenyon is the author of Sunshower (a memoir), G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NY; The Brontë Family/Passionate Literary Geniuses, Lerner Publications, Minn. and Endeavor Media, London; and Charles Dickens/Compassion and Contradiction, Endeavor Media, London. She has features published in Newsweek; British Heritage; The Christian Science Monitor; and other publications. Her poetry has been in small journals, The Christian Science Monitor, and San Diego Free Press. She currently teaches for UCSD-X; SDSU’s Osher program; and SD Writers Ink.

Latest posts by Karen Kenyon (see all)

• ‘Seize the King’ at La Jolla Playhouse: Self-Righteousness, Greed and Lust for Power - September 12, 2018
• Our Fathers - June 16, 2018
• ‘Community Hero’ Attorney Steve Binder and San Diego’s Homeless Court Program - April 18, 2018