Mark Tulin | MockingHeart Review—Two Poems

BETWEEN TWO TREES, GRANNY OF MENUDO.
— Read on mockingheartreview.com/volume-5-issue-3/poetry/mark-tulin/

Mark Tulin
BETWEEN TWO TREES

I watch a homeless man
rest peacefully
between the haves
and the have-nots

The lucky children play
on the monkey bars,
as the blackbirds graze
on a fertile lawn,
beside a nearby truck
backing up, warning us
with blinking lights

I can see the world
between two trees,
imperfect
and unequal
as tall as the palms
stretching upward,
as temporary
as a summer breeze
that carries
floating dandelion
seeds.

GRANNY OF MENUDO

Granny, I never got to see you when you were young
All dolled-up in leather heels,
a colorful shawl around your shoulders,
with such a loud and confident voice

I never experienced your grandmotherly love,
or ate your Mexican rice and beans,
took those shopping trips to Macy’s
and rib-eye dinners at the Ponderosa

I never saw you drive your Buick LeSabre
with your big, round sunglasses,
your skinny fingers on the steering wheel
and your casino vouchers safely in your bag

I never got to sit with you at Chavez Ravine,
watching a Los Angeles Dodgers game
The time you saw Koufax throw a perfect game,
and Maury Wills stealing bases

I never got the chance to see you when you were young,
gently stirring the white-speckled pot of Menudo,
your unique brand of spices and pigs’ knuckles,
ladling out just enough hominy and tripe.