Good Riddance Chicken, and: Luke 23:41

Abstract

Good Riddance Chicken, and: Luke 23:41 Michael Waters (bio) GOOD RIDDANCE CHICKEN My wife still cooks some mealsUsing my ex-girlfriend’s recipes,Their familiar cursive once thrillingIn those years of exchanging lettersWith their catalogs of arousal, divulgingWhere we would taste each otherOn those weekends we managed to eraseThe distance between her home and mine.Maryland-Connecticut. I-95. DrivingThrough downpour or snow, blastingCranberries or Counting Crows.She prepared exquisite meals,Artichoke Heart Soufflé orBass Fillets Poached with FennelFor my midnight arrival,Coddled eggs with shallotsFor breakfast, then mailed the recipesSo that I might in her absence recreateEach savory morsel. Now my wifeRevises each directive, shunningGrapes but adding orange wheelsOr switching shiitake for wild chanterelle,Purring with Rihanna on the radio,Crossing out the name of each dishAt the top of the creased index cardTo substitute one of her own invention,But growing quiet when she reads, again,Looped at the bottom of her favorite recipe,The one for Chilled Roquefort Chicken,“Always better when you add my company.” [End Page 512] LUKE 23:41 Asbury Park / Ocean Grove, NJ After hours, both signs read Lifeguards Off Duty,But one beach insists No SwimmingWhile the other shrugs Swim at Your Own Risk.That beach flaunts three tall crosses upright in sand.Last summer I watched two dolphinsArc lazily past one beach toward the otherWhile lifeguards whistled swimmers from the water.One great brown triangular fin trailed those dolphinsWho swam at their own riskBeyond crosses tossing shadows on bathers.Where I swim I choose shark, preferringThe geometries of this worldTo the wavering shadows of the next.Let salt winnow what is false in meWhere creatures cruise dim shallows.Let me test my luckOutside the gloom of woodOn which one impenitent thief mocked salvationWhile the other swervedIn the wisdom of suffering and understoodWe are punished justly,For we receive what our deeds deserve. [End Page 513] Michael Waters MICHAEL WATERS’s recent books include The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), Celestial Joyride (BOA Editions, 2016), and a co-edited anthology, Reel Verse (Knopf, 2019). A 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of five Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the NEA, Fulbright Foundation, and NJ State Council on the Arts, Waters teaches at Monmouth University and for the Drew University MFA Program. Copyright © 2018 Michael Waters