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The Sunday Poem: Dee Cohen... The Part in Your Ex-Wife's Hair

Your husband and a video of his ex-wife stuffing a big holiday bird: well, it certainly sounds festive. Once again Dee Cohen slices off a chunk of life so real you can taste it.

Her work has been published in assorted print and on line journals. Her chapbook Lime Avenue Evening was published by The Laguna Poets group of California.

The Part in Your Ex-Wife’s Hair

On video, she prepares stuffing

for the holiday bird,
giving instructions to the camera:
stir this, as she scrapes a spoon
across a pan of onions,
add this, and she dumps in the mushrooms.
She points with her cigarette
at the cutting board where
celery waits, white with bitterness.
Behind her, in the sink,
egg shells bob like lifeboats
in the gray dishwater.
She stops talking,
as if she has suddenly felt you
watching all these months later.
Silence pours into the kitchen
as she continues her work,
leaning down to open the oven,
the part in her hair
jagged like it has been torn
from side to side.
On a rear burner,
in a small pot,
the neck, the livers,
and the heart foam.

--Dee Cohen

Poetry submissions are welcome. Email theditchrider@gmail.com.

1 member likes this

Comment by Margaret Randall on January 9, 2011 at 7:54am: Dee's done it again. What a perfect poem about the sorts of disappointments and anger imprinted on what makes up the fabric of our ordinary lives. Reading this, on the morning after the Tucson shooting, I can't help but pondering the connective tissue between the small domestic hurts and the larger public ones... Celery white with bitterness... I just hope we can grab one of those egg-shell lifeboats in time. Thanks again to Jon and Dee for another great start to a Sunday morning.

Comment by Georgia Santa-Maria on January 9, 2011 at 10:56am: Ouch! Dee, I really like your work--this is so vivid, I can see the steam, smell the foaming heart. Thanks.

Comment by cathyray on January 9, 2011 at 10:57am: zing! celery white with bitterness!

Comment by Krista on January 9, 2011 at 11:51am: love it! and any comment I could rack my brain for would pale so much in comparison to Margaret Randall's, so I'll leave it with that. :)

Comment by Zuzu Petals on January 9, 2011 at 4:22pm: Excellent. Thank you, Dee

Comment by Ben Moffett on January 9, 2011 at 8:24pm: The last four lines paint a grim picture and one this old born-on-a-farm boy has seen up close and personal.hard to forget. Thanks..

Comment by Barelas Babe on January 9, 2011 at 10:03pm: Your poem packs some powerful (and dare I say disturbing?) images, Dee. Add my thanks to the heap. Brava!

Comment by Dee Cohen on January 10, 2011 at 6:14am: Thanks to all for such positive responses to my poem.

They are much apprecaited.

And thanks to Jon for making my Sunday so cool!

Dee

Comment by Courtney J on January 30, 2013 at 1:42pm: So vivid and so much tension there in that room that is now a memory. Subtle, real, and timeless. Can't wait to read your next poem!