Poem of the Week: 4.11.24

"In Lieu of Flowers" by Marianna Tabares

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS

by Marianna Tabares

For the housewarming
I’ll need a few new things
maybe socks
cast iron
underwear
this new place has room to stretch
to reach across and close
blinds on the past
I don’t need to see me
ten years ago, crying because I did
what I was supposed to do
to end up married
belly full of babies
family dinners
trips east to see his parents
weekends watching movies
unmedicated misery
wondering what I would do when
another woman texted him.
Nah I’m good.

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This is what Substack’s GenAI spat out with the prompt “another woman texted him” as a painting. It works, I guess.

As April is national poetry month, I want to share some of my favorite poets who are a part of  my local poetic network. The first friend I’ll feature is educator, writer, poet, mentor, role model, summertime New Orleanian, and prolific Wordle champion—Marianna Tabares. Marianna and I met in 2019 when I was starting out as a teacher in South LA. We spent the next few years as classroom neighbors, pedagogical Jedi and Padawan, drinking buddies, and  poetic pals. She was a part of the very first “poem of the week” email chain that I started while we were coworkers, and she was and is a big influence on my career as educator and literary artist. 

What I love about “In Lieu of Flowers” is its precision. Every line holds. Individual lines—“maybe socks” / “to reach across and close” / “wondering what I would do when”—are poems in themselves. There are hallmarks of modernist poetry (fluids parts of speech, sharp enjambment, free verse) that are balanced by a deliberate present tense: “crying because I did”. While the reader is first situated in a beginning of “housewarming” the cruel “iron” of heartbreak threatens “to end.” But the “end” is in the middle of the poem; after misery comes acceptance, and so the poem’s true ending is in the statement. Even “wondering” must come to an end if we are to keep moving past the “misery” of love and loss; confidence and trust in self is strong enough to take its place. 

“In Lieu of Flowers” was published in Rigorous, along with two other delectable poems. You can—and should—read more of Marianna’s writing on Medium or via Amazon/Kindle. Thanks to her for letting me share.

In lieu, Ricky