January 30: First Month of 2015, Rebecca Schumejda, "Black Banana"

Well, the first month of 2015 is almost over.  In the past month, one of my daughter's friend's was nearly killed in a car accident.  My sister ended up in the hospital with an infection that almost killed her.  It seems like all I've been doing all month is praying for people in dire circumstances.

Sometimes, it's difficult to understand why things happen.  Really good people are beheaded by terrorists.  Young girls sustain horrible injuries.  Republicans gain control of Congress.  Sisters get sicker and sicker.  How do you make sense of stuff like that?  Maybe through poetry.

Saint Marty has another poem from Rattle's "Poets Respond" series.  It's about making sense of a senseless situation.  And it's about bananas.

Black Banana

by:  Rebecca Schumejda

When my daughter wants to know

how someone could leave a baby

in a car all day by accident,

I think about how a few years back

she left a banana

wedged behind her car seat

for an entire week

and we could not

figure out what stunk.

After finding it, I looked up

“black bananas” online,

discovered there is a band

that goes by that name and

mothers who blog about

finding them forgotten

in diaper bags.

I saw images of

black banana hair clips

and big, black cocks.

I felt guilty that I wasn’t

patient enough, loving enough

calm enough to take a mistake

and turn it into a lesson. 

Back then, I yelled at her

as if she had murdered

the banana, Look what you did!

I screamed waving it at her

before throwing it into our backyard.

Now, I am thinking about that banana,

as she waits for my response,

how if somehow

I could peel it,

the answer would be there

like banana bread

just pulled from the oven.