Double Dutch
by Claire Scott

Do you remember Double Dutch? Two kids swinging ropes
in opposite directions, while a third jumps in.
                    Mable, Mabel set the table
                    Just as fast as you are able
I was truly terrible at it, unwieldy ropes
twisted & tangled.

My parents lived in opposite worlds. A Venn
diagram with no overlap. My father mired
in routine. A poached egg with Sanka for breakfast,
two meticulously measured ounces of scotch
before supper, which was always broiled or boiled.
No fried chicken. Ever. Bedtime at ten. Never five past.

My mother gobbled Whitman chocolates for supper,
spitting back the ones with coconut or cashew.
Emergency stops for ice cream while shopping
for school clothes in December. Two am
canvasses splashed with flashy colors.
I picked my father’s world, steady, safe, predictable,

like his seven o’clock alarm & twenty-six-minute
workout. But as the light lessens, I wonder about
the dry ditto of days, the pi r squared world
of perfect circles & imagine my mother’s world.
The wild beauty that was wrung from her
windblown & weird & whimsical bipolar clouds.
                    Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turnout the light
                    Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say good-night



 

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