2 March 2003 | Vol. 3, No. 1
Maintenance
After the surgery, my mother dipped a rag into a hissing
bucket of Pine-Sol, scrubbed away the musk-metallic
blood from the flesh-toned seat, pine tree
air freshener tick-
tocking from the rear view mirror.
My older sister had driven
two hours before walking through the emergency
room door, vagina and anus torn into one.
I scribbled slut, slut, slut
in a letter to her after told I would miss
the slumber party where boys would sneak
through the basement window
after midnight.
My father, Pall Mall smoke squinting
his eyes, lifted the hood of her car, wiped the dipstick
tip onto his jeans, poured a quart of oil into a stained
funnel. His birthday present
still riding in the passenger seat—
bright white tube socks, red stripes ringing
their necks.
About the author:
Kami Westhoff's poetry has appeared in the Red River Review and the Madison Review, and her fiction in the Hawaii Pacific Review and Third Coast. She is a native of Bellingham, WA, and currently enrolled in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts.
For further reading:
Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 3, No. 1, where "Maintenance" ran on March 2, 2003. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
