A Brief Cavatine

The check register for July 1972 shows insurance
costs of $500, a $300 payment on a 4-year pledge
to Iowa State, a $30 gift to the Guthrie Theater, $13.35
for the milk (it was delivered every day) and $5.16
to the Pantorium (they did Dad's shirts).

                                    Every month

$135.00 to St. Cecilia's.
Mrs. Nelson got $13.00 a week to
do the floors and windows. Mom made her
a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and she always
got dessert, which we didn't. Milk. We girls had to
dust, mow, shovel, bring in the milk and clean our own
rooms.

$15.00 a month for the phone. $5.94 for
Light & Power. Looks like they owned the cars outright.

On Oct. 4, my mom wrote a $10.00 check, weirdly,
to "America" and also sent her mom a hundred bucks.

And then, weirdlier still, on Dec. 9, a check to me
for $15.00,  which cannot be for a bag of pot, but what else
would I have needed fifteen bucks for?

Judy Swann lives in gorgeous Ithaca, NY in a small house painted in Frida Kahlo colors. Her poetry has appeared in Lilliput Review, Verse Wisconsin, Soundzine and other places both in print and online. She is an Iowan.