I remember the first time someone left
groceries at the door, rang the bell and
snuck away before we answered, it was
my mother, as always at her best. Donna
and I were down with the flu, coughs and
fevers and the general aches we associate
with it, and Dan had it too, he was born in
August and this was February, so he was new
to us and we were just trying to figure things
out, aching, feverish and still trying to help
an infant, the newness of it all, his fever for
some reason scared us more than our own,
and in the midst of it all the doorbell rang to
the groceries and we watched my mother
drive away. We told that story to each other
for years, till now not appreciating that she, my
mother lived through the Spanish Flu as a girl
in New York City and she must have recalled
how to handle things like this, while we didn’t,
so many things were new to us back then. And I
thought of this the other day when the bell rang
to groceries on the step and there was Dan driving
away, like his grandmother did so many years ago.
J. K. Durick is a retired writing teacher and online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Literary Yard, Vox Poetica, Synchronized Chaos, Madswirl, Pendemic, and Eskimo Pie.