barbara

Barbara Billingsley

I was the faceless Nanny
listening to the racket
of the Muppet Babies.
I stood at the mic,
recorded the voice: sorrow
contained out the kitchen window
on the blazing Technicolor lawn.
I lived in trivial roles:
Blonde with Hives
in So You Think You're Allergic.
Jive Lady. Saleswoman.
Customer in flowered hat.
Hat Check Girl.
Edna the Receptionist.
Dorothy the Secretary.
The Seamstress crossing the room
to hem Lana Turner's dress
in The Bad & the Beautiful.
Above my sternum
covered with pearls:
a surgical scar. I stood
in heels under the hot lights
with a cookie plate out.
Advising the homemaker
to dress up their role. Simply
the healer of Ward's bad moods.
Simply June in The Human Duplicators.
June Cleaver in Still the Beaver.


-Jeffery Berg


Originally published in October 2010's MiPOesias (on pg. 23)


1915 - 2010.