Lucy

Lucy Buckley let her
hair grow longer.
Today in the park
she swept it aside
and said she doesn't go
to mass anymore.
She told my father-
in-law she doesn't
believe half the dogma,
and besides, they want
to own you.
Her girls are grown;
she did her part. All
these years, we assumed
she was devout. The Buckleys
had their own pew.

Lucy surprises me every
time she speaks, and before
I ever met her she surprised
me, when my husband
quoted her perfect New
Jersey stepmother line:
"Why botha? Wih all jus'
waitin-a die." I knew
I would like any woman
who uses death as a rhetorical
strategy, just to get out
of going to the movies.