The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Johanna Aitchison’s “Banana & The Battered Woman Group”
Banana & The Battered Woman Group
After the other battered women go
get chicken for their rolls, after
the coleslaw & instant coffees
& fruit bursts, after the video,
(in which the man says to his wife,
“Come here,” he drags her down
& tells her she looks hot & gropes
her boobs in front of their son,
she swats him off like a fly,
“Not in front of Jarred!” she says;
& he suddenly decides her sexy outfit
is not so cool if it’s going
to be taken out on the street
where other men will stare at it,
so he says to the boy, “Mummy
looks like a real slut in that.”
The boy looks up at mummy
in a way that makes Banana think
he knows what “slut” means.
The boy drops his head
to his bag of chicken chippies),
Banana bites into her chicken roll
& says, “What an arsehole!”
the other battered women laugh,
& the very young woman
takes her dark glasses off.
© Johanna Aitchison
Posted with permission.
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I am currently reposting previously featured poems from poets who have have more than one poem on “…Anything, Really.”
To read my original commentary on “is anybody in there” and a bio of Johanna Aitchison, please click here.
To check out the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.