Plate Spinners

I got my ya-ya from my mamma. In our family, it runs.
I was southern then. I had the affinity.

I had it before I was thirty.
In those days there was plate spinners on TV.

And berets.
And Bandstand as the pastime.

My spoon slid into Kraft macaroni from a box.
I ate ate it all up.

My parents lived nearby in another generation.
I didn’t know the name, Dien Bien Phu.

I didn’t know from severed ears except Van Gogh’s.
After a while, I wasn’t shocked anymore.

I grew loose.
It was too late to be astonished.
 
 
 

Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives and works the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of two books and three chapbooks. Her most recent publication is Persephone on the Metro, a chapbook from MadHat Press (2014). Her work is available on line and has been anthologized. Some of her publications are linked on-line at www. wendytaylorcarlisle.com.