Two Poems by Dora Malech

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Rearview Mère
 

One lump or two? is a Leppard lyric I suspect
no one has heard in full outside a moving vehicle
since this century’s turn, but even a window
cracked and the Leppard cranked can still confect me,
spin me a drive-by sugar sculpture CarLotz wife,
sucralost, neck stuck on swivel past the slashed
prices, mouth ajar at a buzzing’s searchlight
sweep across these fillings.
What makes ’nother
a mother’s obvious: just takes a second
lump. Nursing this mom-fat concoction
scrawled to-go with some off-brand
of my name—Doe-a-dearer, Doe-a-dire,
dorsal fin, fine, fin—I admit all I was
willing to sell to sit idling inside a song.

*

After “After ‘The Day After My Father’s Death’”
 

I’d I’d I’d I I thought I’d
be (I’d do, did)
(coo big diff diff) different.
Kiddo, kingdom came, kept
each chip, hock of day.
I hid mid-pox.
I’d do okay. Who hid?
Home, we taught them.