First Gen
When she was angry she'd spit out Schopenhauserwith an s as if to make a house of it"That's what you're reading all the time isn't it?"standing at the counter spooning canned fruit into bowls
When she was sick we made our peace over late night TVwithout the spectre of German philosopherswe could keep the conversation light
I didn't do well in philosophyI know the simplest answer can be the right oneand that there's always a cat in a boxthat what I see is not always what it seems and I knowI will never make it back to her in time [End Page 110]
Mary-Kim Arnold is the author of Litany for the Long Moment (Essay Press, 2018) and The Fish & The Dove (Noemi Press, 2020). Other writing has appeared in such publications as Conjunctions, Hyperallergic, Poem-a-Day, The Georgia Review, The Denver Quarterly, and The Rumpus, among others. She teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program at Brown University and at The Newport MFA.
