My mother turns 78 and texts

This entry is part 12 of 73 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Winter 2011-12

 

her first cellphone chain letter: This
January is very special! There are 5
Sundays and 5 Mondays in 1 single

month— this happens every 823 years!
According to Chinese feng shui, you must
send this message to 9 good women you love,

and money will appear! Those who stop
won’t get anything. Good luck, now
you’re on the list and something

will make u happy. I got her multi-
part text shortly before New Year’s eve,
along with a p.s. about remembering

to eat tomatoes and broccoli and not
stress out too much, to help my liver
heal— And now I realize I’ve let 3

full days pass without doing anything
about these instructions. On one hand,
she’s always been the optimistic

though slightly superstitious sort;
and on the other, she’s never been
one to shy away from buckle-down-

hard-work. She had carpenters tear up
the floorboards in our living room,
because the grain of the wood flowed

in a vertical direction, certainly
taking all good fortune out the door.
More than a couple of times, when I

was a child, I watched from bed
as she sat night after night with pins
in her mouth and a tangle of stitches

before her, seed pearls, satin, and rick-
rack, sewing a trousseau and outfits
for an entire bridal entourage.

She texts me often nowadays, saying she
goes to church and prays she’ll find a buyer
for our old home, so she can come and live

with me. She remembers her grand-
daughter here, from the last time she
came for a visit and my child was still

in pre-school; how she arrived at the tail
end of summer and marveled as leaves changed
to rich bronze colors of ball gowns

in fall; how disappointed she was her visa
extension request was denied before there
was even enough snow to cover the grass.

 

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

Series Navigation← New[poem temporarily removed by author] →

9 Replies to “My mother turns 78 and texts”

  1. She is beautiful!

    But I have a problem: we have been trying to work out about the Saturdays and Sundays and can’t see it – Sundays and Mondays yes. Is it a date-line thing, or am I just being too literal?

  2. Lucy, the text message is reproduced nearly exactly as I got it… except I too noticed there are only four Saturdays this January, though indeed there are five Sundays; I’m starting to think she meant five Sundays and Mondays! & yes I hope I get to look even a fraction as good as that when I get to that age!

  3. *Sigh* Why do people who are good and intelligent, still fall for chain letter BS? That text is a big hoax, a load of hooey. The next January with 5 Sundays and Mondays will be in 2017 if I’m calculating it right. Forwarding something won’t blip a bunch of money into existence either.

Leave a Reply to Dale Favier Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.