Cousin Emma grabbed
all the blankets
and took up most of the bed,
I just had a little bit of sheet
Her bed—
so I s’pose…
I froze the whole night long.
Next time I had to stay there
I found her secret letters
from her army boyfriend
tucked back in her sock drawer.
I grabbed a bunch and stuffed
them into my underwear
reading in Aunt Molly’s blue
tile bathroom with the door locked.
Most were a lot of crap
about his day- to- day
at some base in the south:
guns and drills and bad food,
an itchy uniform.
Down the years
one thing stuck with me
The way he signed off every time:
No Boys Whatsover!
I read that in letter after letter
and it made me all tingly.
This guy is creepy I thought,
getting even more tingly.
Not once did he write:
Emma I will love you forever.
Maybe Emma secretly pined
for a boy to go to the prom,
Or just a boy to go to the movies
and share a tub of popcorn
like her girlfriends did.
Eventually that war ended
and he came back.
Thick dark hairs coated
his arms in those short sleeve shirts
he favored.
She called him Dommie
and they married.
Her blonde sort of good looks
washed out in a couple of years
and a couple of kids.
Emma began drinking like her old man.
Uncle Lenny always red-faced,
pulling her onto his lap.
Maybe sharing that bed with me
Emma foresaw her future.
Which was why she froze me out.
Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty year writer in all genres. Her most recent book, a Novel titled Hair Of A Fallen Angel, came out in the fall from Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC. Tepper has also written 7 stage plays. Her third play titled EVA & ADAMO will present at The Tank, NYC, early fall. www.susantepper.com
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