Sarah Sarai

Hotting the Spoon

No one thinking about ice caps in the Sixties,
shooting up or melting them.
Mom and the bee our central shared memory
on the contrived lawns of
        Southern California.

Judee saw my mom halt one,
U-turn it, buzzy in-flight
when we were on McCormick Street.
Near Hayvenhurst.
I watched Judee watch.
Watch and believe
Mom and the bee.
To the bee’s Truth Mom spoke Truth
transcendentally.

My sister was arrested
for being a hippie in Texas.
Mom concentrated the weather
so a hurricane slammed the Lone Star state.
Who knows where Judee was then.

In London with the Kinks?
At Dale’s in the flats of Hollywood?
He had a shitload of albums.

Death is about spiritual reorganization.
Mom tried to overcome the body.
We are all immortal.
Judee Sill more so than all.

Sarah Sarai is author of Geographies of Soul and Taffeta and The Future Is Happy, and has published short fiction in over 20 journals. She is from New York State, California, New Mexico, Washington, and New York City, in that order.