Joan McNerney

Same crap, different century

Well I have heard this generation

is a bunch of rude, crude show-offs.

I remember my granny taking me

to a rummage sale for a winter coat.

Even though it was a boy’s coat,

she said. “It’s good enough for her”.

That was after my father died in Arizona

where you did not need winter clothes

and I was shipped back to Brooklyn.

She had chunky cut glass pieces on a

huge table dressed with heavy lace.

Her chandelier hung, of course,

in the special room nobody used.

We sat at the kitchen table covered

with oilcloth and ate canned spitgetti

while white bread turned blue green.

When she asked me to go for a ride,

it was exciting because I thought

we’re going somewhere in her big car.

She drove around for a new parking space.

Some things never change…this world is

full of crazy people who think they are sane.

AND she was devoutly religious too.