Two of the Furies

By Lucia Perillo Lucia Perillo

The old woman in the parking lot

wields her walker not unspryly. Gray hair

lank and without style, hanging

under her ski hat, as I wear a ski hat—

her legs bare under her skirt,

my legs bare under my skirt,

she wears sneakers, I wear sneakers—

windbreaker, windbreaker. She rolls up

to watch me board, as people do,

because it is interesting

to see the wheelchair maneuvered backward

into the van. You got it?

she asks, as people do

though I am not their child.

We are not sisters either,

despite the wind’s ruffling our skirts in sync—

oh how she is interested in the ruffling of my skirt.

The ruffle makes her giddy, starts

her bald gums racing on their wordless observations

as she peers into my thighs.

How alike we are! says this

no-sister of mine to be argued with,

just some crazy old woman

flashing the terrible crater of her smile

to raise the wind and

prove her point.

Source: Inseminating the Elephant (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)

Biography

Lucia Perillo is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Dangerous Life (1989), which won the Norma Farber Award from the Poetry Society of America; The Body Mutinies (1996), winner of the Kate Tufts prize from Claremont University; The Oldest Map with the Name America (1999); Luck is Luck (2005), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and won the Kingsley Tufts prize from Claremont University; . . .

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