Heroines of the Super Kind
Our heroine just another A & W customer,
with a well-stocked purse dangling from her left arm.
Husband ba-dum ba-dums behind.
Her age-speckled hands – look closely and you’ll note
their suppleness and strength – his only portal
from this galaxy to the next. She finds them a table,
helps with his jacket.
She orders the onion-ring combo; he converses
with the lofty ceiling fixtures. Slaps his knee again and again
and again, and then the table, with force,
as if these motions alone will save him
should her powers fade.
They eat, she talks, as if both were ordinary mortals,
lunching on a regular Wednesday. Familiar fifties tunes
underscore their shared dilemma: “Let’s go to the Hop,
oh baby, let’s go to the Hopâ€.
In her Wonder Woman voice, mellifluous as chimes,
she murmurs calming phrases, rezips his jacket.
He hasn’t eaten much, he’s anxious to move on.
The fix they’re in requires of her extraordinary grace,
singular dedication.
The couple fumble toward heaven’s door, him so much
closer to the latch. Her hands gently pummel them
past distractions, pave the way to customer parking,
ease them out into traffic.
~ Myrna Garanis
Myrna Garanis is an Edmonton poet and essayist. She collaborated with four other Edmonton poets to produce Eyeing the Magpie from Five Magpie Press. The same group of collaborators will perform new work at Government House in Edmonton on september 30th at 3 p.m. during Alberta Culture Days.
Read more of Myrna Garanis’ poetry here.
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