You turn the music up loud, sure that
no one will be wakened by this
melancholy country ballad behind
rolled-up car windows. You close
your eyes, float on the singer’s mellow
voice, her words of love a salve.
When you open your eyes again, it is still
dark, not yet six-thirty
on a Tuesday morning.
You watch the man from the next
block as he leads two dogs
in one big multi-legged shadow
past your car.
You do not wave, preferring
to remain nestled in music
for a few more minutes before
you take the key from the ignition,
roll your body out of the driver’s seat,
leave behind your third shift nurse self.
You go inside the blue corner house
to the husband and two young boys
whose eyes are just now opening, whose
hearts worry that you work long hours
even as they let their need of you
bleed through their welcomes, even
as they devour you before you can
drift back to the music,
to that perfect moment alone
when no one asked anything of you.
Kathleen Cassen Mickelson is a writer firmly grounded in Minnesota, but she occasionally leaves the US to shake up her perspective. You can find samples of her work on the mnartists.org website. She works in multiple genres.
22 Responses to “A MOMENT IN THE EARLY MORNING DARK • by Kathleen Cassen Mickelson”
Comments
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March 24th, 2009 at 2:16 am
I loved it, Kathleen!
March 24th, 2009 at 6:04 am
This captures well known feelings better than I could ever express them – an inherent characteristic of the poetry I appreciate most.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:34 am
A well-written vignette of a very virtuous lady who works as a nurse on the night shift. She listens to mushy bland songs which lull her like “a salve” before she comes home to render domestic service to her demanding children who are also very good because they worry about her working so hard. She would, if she could, “drift back” to the moments of unchallenging music which she listens to in her home-bound auto, that “perfect moment alone, when no one asked anything of you.” Good song, like a good story or poem asks quite a bit of the listener’s/reader’s mental involvement and this lady is too heavily burdened to involve herself with such.
This short glimpse into the life of an overworked, overburdened mother and nurse would work just as well, in my opinion better, as a short prose story rather than as prose-poem which was invented to make girdled shapes on the page.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Kathleen: What a wonderful descriptive poem about the moment between work and home. I have so been there. I can relate. I loved the part “even as they let their need of you bleed through their welcomes, even as they devour you”. So well said.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Way to go Kath! A very touching piece that I a very glad to read at last!
March 24th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Great, Kathleen. I’ve always admired your way with words.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Beautifully done – the slow but easy rhythm of the lines perfectly captures the moment of morning quiet and the central character’s mood of fatigue and reluctance. And the poem takes an honest look at an honest feeling.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I don’t know if I’ve ever related to a poem more. I’m a full-time caregiver and, on those rare occasions when I get away for a few hours, it’s all I can do to leave the car when I get home. My music choices are vastly different, but the emotion rings absolutely true. Well done Kathleen.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:17 am
A lovely bubble of time captured. And – yes – I’ve also sat in the car, listening to a track before being swallowed up by the family…
Superb…
March 24th, 2009 at 11:20 am
What a nicely framed picture in the moment of a busy life.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:27 am
You must have worked third shift! I have, and you captured the coming-home moments perfectly.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:42 am
A wonderfully captured moment!
D
March 24th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Very nice, Kathleen. Really captures the mood and totality of the moment. Thanks for sending the link!
March 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Oh, wow, Kathleen…….. the tension of this built up as I read until the emotions and feelings came to the surface in the final lines. I have never ‘worked the third shift’ but I feel like I can really indentify with this. Heart-rending!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
It seems to me that moms work the third shift as well as every other–24/7–their hearts and minds are always there.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Thank you, everyone, for reading my piece and the wonderful comments. I very much appreciate them.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I couldn’t agree more with this poem! Thanks.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Captures working the third shift for sure. That moment alone at the end of a long night of nursing was spot on.
–dj
March 25th, 2009 at 5:58 am
The more I ponder this piece of writing, the more I like it. It is hammered out of a self and that self’s situation.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I used to work as a nurse…and know just what you mean about “when no one asked anything of you”. Even after 12 years of retirement, that has yet to change. Nursing saps you dry.
Great way to word those thoughts. I enjoyed the poem very much.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Real poetry kathleen- you carjacked me into the moment. Loved it!
September 14th, 2009 at 8:21 am
You capture the moment perfectly. What woman hasn’t known that moment – universal. Beautiful.