#30 SENSING ANTICIPATION poetry

It is difficult to describe the pleasure I derived from writing the poetry that ultimately became a little book: ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING. I believe my participation in years of "April A to Z Challenge" prepared me to "stick with it" until I wrote and edited all 70 poems. This light-hearted poem reflects our unique ability to absorb emotions.

  

 

#30

Sensing Anticipation 

She sees

Crust, a crispy shell dimpled

by miniature bubbles.

Like fragile lava, hardened

 

She tastes

Lemon filling, with scrapings

from the rind.

Tangy and mouth-watering

 

She touches

Eggs, whipped while adding

sugar to the mix.

Scooped atop the filling

 

She inhales

Meringue, toasted light

until peaks curl and brown.

Experience a mother’s love

 

 

*****     *****     *****

 

 

Mom always had little tricks for making foods taste a bit more special. She added small amounts of sugar to her pots of chili. She grated lemon rind and added it to her lemon pie filling to give it that extra tanginess. The back of my mouth waters just thinking about the flavor of her lemon pies.

Her meringue always came out with perfectly browned and curled peaks. I guess all of her desserts seemed perfect to me. The only “tale” we ever heard as kids was the one about the chocolate pudding. 

Dad loved to tell the story about when they were newly married. Mom attempted to make chocolate pudding for him. He said it ended up the texture of tanned horse-hide. He always got the “faux air slap” gesture for telling the tale, but I think Mom enjoyed having him tell it. She had no inadequacies in her role as homemaker. 

While Dad served in the Army during World War II, she ran the household and took care of three small children. Rosie the Riveter, doing her patriotic duty in the factory while her man protected the country’s freedom, had nothing on my mother. Housewives kept “home fires” burning during that time. When the men returned home to their families, they found strong, independent women waiting for them. 

Images of “Leave It To Beaver” moms and “I Love Lucy” wives were as much a joke to these women as to the men. 

 

 *****     *****     *****

 

 

U.S. ARMY NURSE CORPS

The United States Army Nurse Corps was established by law in 1901. With no draft for nurses, this law directed the U.S. Surgeon General to maintain a reserve list of nurses qualified to serve in times of national emergency.

In 1940, the U.S. Army had less than one thousand regular army nurses on active duty. With the threat of global war, nurses on the reserve list were called up to serve a one-year tour of duty. They worked in evacuation hospitals, in places such as Sicily, where they handled an average of 100 new casualties a day.

AND IF I PERISH by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee portrays the work of frontline army nurses during World War II. This book influenced my choice of background for protagonist Pepper Bibeau in the novel For Every Action.

Unlike the frontline nurses of WWII, however, Pepper is portrayed as a former army nurse who had served during the Vietnam Conflict. Pepper’s experiences are an amalgam of all nurses who served in times of war, and are meant to honor the nurses who served in U.S. wars from World War II through Desert Storm and beyond.