She was really religious,
a joy to watch at prayers.
But from childhood on
a confirmed romantic,
disagreeing with the
sacred rules of sex,
sacrifice, marriage.
We had the prescribed talks
of a mother and daughter
at puberty, but she’d cover her face,
try to hide her revulsion
at the thought of turning two
literally into one.
She promised to eat
plenty of proteins,
so important in planned
pregnancies, promised in fact
to do anything but devour her handsome
healthy husband during The Act,
biting off his head and continue
chomping him passionately, in keeping
with the age-old practice of mating
if you’re a praying mantis.
It’s a puzzlement; it’s true,
but what is a mantis mother to do?
Rice Lyons has been leading her poetry workshop, “The Wonder of Wordplay,” for more than 13 years at the Princeton Senior Research Center. During her 30 years as an administrator at Princeton, she initiated and taught “LAFF, Life After Forty Five.” Lyons’ poetry has appeared in various publications.
