by Regina Dilgen
Bowling.
The psychiatrist said,
with your husband,
and three other couples, once a week
that should provide relief
That’s what he told our neighbor Mrs. Penny
In the early 1960s
Her husband didn’t understand why
she couldn’t cope
Why
Rice Krispie bowls were crusting in the sink when he got home
He’d timed it
for her
She should be able to get
the beds of the six children all made
and the breakfast dishes cleared
by midmorning
I wish she’d known
time was actually on her side
A whole
new world was coming
There’d be other places
Where she’d no longer be laned, coupled
There’d be other things to speak of
Not just the sound of
Things getting knocked down
***
Regina Dilgen, Ph.D., served as Professor of English and Department Chair at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, Florida. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in, Chameleon Chimera: An Anthology of Florida Poets, Blueline, Earth’s Daughters, Quartler(ly), The Dewdrop, Persimmon Tree, Passager, and Apollo’s Lute. She was a featured poet at a Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches reading. She lives in Delray Beach, Florida, where she writes and paints.