By Jeff Rawlings
Britney gloves up and wonders
if she has a taco seasoning packet
in her kitchen cabinet where she stores
her spices and her sanity while doing twelves
at the nursing home.
Britney rolls up the draw sheet
and tucks it under Mr. Cipriando’s left side,
to make it easier to pull it out from under him
when he’s rolled off the bedpan.
She remembers that there is no taco seasoning packet
in her kitchen cabinet.
Britney wishes all her residents were as nice
as Mr. Cipriando, who has never hit Britney on purpose.
Once, back when he was a little more verbal,
he complimented Britney on her tattoos.
She’ll stop at the market after work and get the seasoning.
She’ll bring Mr. Cipriando a bowl of her taco soup tomorrow,
but he won’t be there, and only a part of Britney will ever be there.
Jeff Rawlings is retired following a military stint, a long career in quality systems management, and a delightful four and a half years on the staff of the Donald W. Reynolds Library serving Baxter County. He is a 1972 U of A Fayetteville English Lit graduate, and he was most active in writing and publishing during the 1990s and early 2000s. In recent years, he has reclaimed his passion for the language and the written word. He was the poetry critic for the Poet’s Roundtable of Arkansas for the 2015-2016 term, and he is now connected with several local poets with whom he shares his scribblings and observations.