Witek, Terri

English

Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

 journal of the motherhood initiative            297 Manual for Children Leaving Hometerri witekWeaning as Prototypea.   A Brief History of the Bottle Includeswho built it first,who nursed it,who tied a label to its neckthen swung it from the county jetty,who took it both as spar and eyeglass,who sinned by it,who swore by it,who bore each splinter like a martyrdomand knew which miraclesit worked (The Breaking of the Pate, The ReversePiñata), who stood watchwith it uncorked, or,smearing its mouth with sweets,caressed neck and shoulders,hoping it could be dangled humanely or from an unknown angle.brought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.ukprovided by Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and...terri witek298           volume 2,  number 1b.  Cold War Cautionaric  Like low-rent majorettes,we shared sparklers while the Weikel brothers, Theodore and Robert, spiked the alley with roman candles. Someone’s eye fell out.The clubhouse vanished into embers.Frowns embossed themselves on brows.We couldn’t say how H2Oin bottle rockets scrubs their flight —we weren’t Newtonians,(though Chucky Partain, pitching rocks at a garage-door’s row of dirty diamonds, was.)  Spit!  Fetch holy water! Mrs. Weikel, nurse to a perpetual plummy funk,broke down and called the fire truck.c. Post-War (Deep History) CautionaricThe investigation links sweat on a boot tongue to me, a label’s lick to you.Offshore, creatures solder themselves together,build long, evidentiary reefsthat swiftly confiscate beach.folio journal of the motherhood initiative            299 So though each vintage has its legs, bottle,we can’t run—which in our common delirium suggests treading water.Recall that the Civil War amputationsby Dr. Bliss were perfect save for the sepsis.Another recommendation to stay bottled up:“All the time he was out of his headnot one bad word or idea escaped him” —thus Walt Whitman wrote Corporal Irwin’s motherafter the boy, wounded near Fort Fisher, succumbed.Thirty years later a Pennsylvania mandonates a limb which has outgrown him;it’s still a nightmare swagger jamming glass.After we’ve been rescued, bottle,we’ll visit it at the National Medical Museumalong with the dry thigh bone of Private Oscar Wilbur,wounded at Chancellorville, who, as he malingered,asked Whitman if he “enjoy’d religion”and was told, at least in the water-rippled account of this I stole from a library,“Perhaps not, my dear, in the way you mean.”d. Bottle Rebottled Chasing the ghost of an idea,terri witek300           volume 2,  number 1I found a solid bottle that displayed,if I considered too its slanted mouth,more than one way to be illogical.But when I claimed a splinterthen tossed the whole contraption shoreward,I recalled a thirst so clearno tide would suit me.So I’m glad it’s gone beyond me.Sly undrinkable,through which the secret grains travelas if to serve some larger table,consider me for once less scoffer than I was.And to all who dislike a crooked span?Go easy on the bottle, friends.Note to BottleTo you I’m a maker’s mark,  the great unweaned.My view through sunstroked glass?   More green.

Manual for Children Leaving Home

https://jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/download/32373/29488

Manual for Children Leaving Home

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Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)