Peter Pereira


Channeling Madge

Months after his mother's funeral
odd turns of phrase
wend their way into his mouth:
howdy-do and back at ya.
This conversation's going into a hole.
He loses his keys,
his wallet. Becomes obsessed
with canning beans, develops
a sudden affection for yarn,
stashing money in sock drawers.
You could buy that lot for a song
and sing it yourself. Entranced
by a branch of the flowering plum
he stands in the side yard
wearing an old kitchen apron,
both hands raised to the white sky
as if hanging wet linens
from a slackened clothesline.

Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle, and an editor at Floating Bridge Press. His poetry has appeared in The Nation, Poetry East, Willow Springs, Seattle Review, and elsewhere. His first chapbook, The Lost Twin, was recently published by Grey Spider Press.