Marge's Lament

by LillyHobbs

This is a poem I wrote for a creative writing course. Anaphora: In rhetoric, an anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

Anaphora: Marge's Lament

I should have known when I heard his father cry "I want my boy. Where is my boy?"

I should have known when I saw the doctor walk down the long, checker-boarded hall, his shoulders slumped, his head down and his bald spot shining in the flickering light until the last second when his watery blue eyes rose unwilling to meet mine.

I should have known, instantly, when they rushed him to a cold, cavernous room with wires flying to him from flashing monitors and nurses running and pages sounding overhead STAT and we were taken to a little room with a plaque on the door that said pastoral care.

I should have known, earlier, when I touched the back of my hand to his forehead and he was burning—his blond hair spiked with sweat, his eyes glazed and roaming, his hot breath fetid. He did not answer but only moaned while my fingers fumbled with the phone.

I should have known the second his sister ran from his room to the kitchen where the baby wailed while I frantically made a thirty-minute dinner. Come and see, she cried, he's sleeping. No, I said, this boy doesn't take naps.

I should have known, even before, when he didn't come to the first sound of the pans crashing.

Why wasn't he there to drive me crazy?

To sneak a hug when no one could see?

Why wasn't he there to eat half his dinner

Even before it made it to the table?

Why wasn't he there to tease Lisa over her homework?

Or bring her to fury by the look on his face.

Why wasn't he there to stand on his head and make Maggie laugh?

Or steal her pacifier and make her cry?

I should have known.

I was his mother