background image
Fall 2008
Prose Title
HJÄLPTRÄD

During the war, I had a wagon and delivered groceries from door to door. I got a nickel for each order, though sometimes I’d have to make a couple of trips up five flights. Once in while, I’d get a penny tip. I’d help older ladies by putting the food away in their pantry cupboards or iceboxes. One day a woman with sad eyes asked me to help her clasp her necklace. She held up the back of her hair, which smelled like lilacs. She turned around and brushed herself against me. I had never been with a woman before. I ran away before I got my five cents. My friends said I was crazy, that I should have at least tried to kiss her. She was beautiful, but I knew something wasn’t right. Her sweetheart wasn’t coming back. In a few months, she announced she was pregnant and Sam from the pool hall had to marry her.

<< | >>
author image
DENISE DUHAMEL's most recent poetry titles are Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005) and Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001). A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami.
 
© 2009 Copyright and Disclaimer Information | Saint Mary's College of California