Late Bloomer
This sundowning day of her centennial
which amazingly she remembers,
Mother volunteers, I look forward
toward every bright & early morning.
Gerry might bring sweet and sour
pork. Perhaps an ice cream sundae
or sandwich from Luisa, Lina, Chito.
Mama’s, Never even knew you
were a southpaw, sets up
my always thrilling revelation
her husband, son & granddaughter
were left-handed physicians.
Memories of literally being shipped
to German boarding school
by a stern stepfather — shot,
along with a cool marriage
of domination by Pops’ career
then grief when he passed on
— all gone. What still remains
is the cleansed present.
Wheelchairing through the once
cherished LA zoo, snacking
like a hippopotomus
Mommy looks like an owl.
Zipping through Westwood
Village’s Garden of Eden,
both kinds of Dominos,
basking through head phones
in Oklahoma & The King And I
high notes from her prime,
conversing through hearing aids
which “did not work” for
the involuted decade before
Dad died. Happier than we can
ever recall here in the house
where I was brought up
now so very content with
her transplanted Filipino
family, vital organs & mood
arguably fitter than mine
it’s possible hundred year-old Mom
is out-enjoying & could outlive not
only the Greatest Generation
but also her boy.
| Gerard Sarnat |
|
levelheaded: Late Bloomer
Gerard Sarnat’s “Late Bloomer” strikes a balance between narrative clarity and density of meaning. On his mother’s one hundredth birthday, the speaker reflects on her life–past and present–before comparing it to his own. In the end, despite her having endured being “shipped / to German boarding school,” having lost a spouse, being hard of hearing and confined to a wheelchair, the speaker’s mother has “vital organs & mood arguably fitter” than his own. She may outlive him.
While the poem’s narrative arch is easy to decipher, the uncertain roles of race and class are discomforting. Is mother Filipino, or is her “transplanted Filipino family” her group of caretakers? Are “Luisa, Lino, Chito” Filipino staffers caring for a white woman?
These questions lead to bigger ones about the speaker’s consciousness. Is the speaker being self-congratulatory about being culturally accepting? That’d be bad. Is he naming the caretakers to point them out as some kind of “other?” That might be worse. Is he pointing out a truth about how deeply race and class are connected in this country? That’d be better.
While one might ask what the race/culture of the staff has to do with his mother’s one hundredth birthday, mentions of “The King and I” and the “German boarding school” suggest Sarnat creates a conscious framework for the race/class issues to be explored. Intended or not, calling members of a marginalized group by name and putting them in roles of servitude makes race the center of the poem. The birthday, then, is a vessel to explore the way the speaker, his mother, and we form our own identities by comparing ourselves to others.
– The Editors
