Woman In Green Coat Poem by Georgia Ann BanksMartin

The park was typical today, couples strolling,
holding hands, kissing, one woman watching,
I knew what she was thinking, I used to have
the same thoughts. I should have told her love
comes with fear and anxiety.

I should have told her how I wish for calls
from the bill collector, asking for Mary Gregory,
as if I would say “She’s here today, please hold, ”
the salesman who used to trick me into buying
seven-year magazine subscriptions,
filled my mail with socialites jailed for DUI.

I long for those calls like some women crave chocolate,
not the ones beginning: Father has fallen, EMS is on the way,
He’s having breathing problems but won’t go to the hospital,
His behavior has become erratic, his options: limited,
The calls that suggest I take comfort in knowing
he’s going to a nursing home, not returning to the house
where he pulled hair from his wife’s gray head,
where he gave uncle a black eye,
where we took his gun away,
fearing suicide.