Luci Huhn
Pot Luck
….what have you noticed… a single simple sentence… no judgment
or meaning-making… just the simple thing …. Pàdraig Ò Tuama
I hear, some mornings she comes downstairs in a dress.
I hear, she has a boyfriend. I notice the young ones sit together,
the thin ones sit together. I hear, I love living near my mother.
I see black cowboy boots, the upturned toes. I notice a scarf
knotted in the front. My scarf is knotted in the back. I see
the young ones’ foreheads touch together. They whisper, they
go out the side door. I notice a gardening hat, that the hat is
a gift, that the gift is worn around the kitchen, the tag still on.
I hear someone say, she’s not even that nice to you. I count
two casseroles of cheesy potatoes. I count two bowls
of potato chips, two different colors. I think, potato potato,
two different pronunciations. I see someone leave before
the food is served. I taste the meat. I taste the pink, plant-
based not-meat. I notice that some of us are pink-faced,
as if the day were warm, that some of us are cool as olives.
I notice a little dog carried in a sling-like purse, then lifted out
and passed around. I hear, the little dog is anxious, I hear,
its owner is anxious. I try to make sense of the purse.
I ask or am asked about upcoming travel, about past
travel, about etiquette at the craps table.
I see one of us is first to spill a drink. I hear someone say,
my mother loves her house, her car, she just loves everything.
When the young ones return through the side door, I smell weed.
I notice how they stand for a minute before sitting.
I hear someone say, it’s a micro-dose, I hear someone say,
it’s the latest thing. I notice I’m feeling judgy, I might be
meaning-making. I hear, it’s already been decided
I see the little dog has fallen asleep inside the purse.
After
LEON_1-2025_AfterLuci Huhn
Luci Huhn is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, whose poems have appeared in Ploughshares, West Branch, SWWIM, Rattle, and South Florida Poetry Review, among others. She lives and writes in Southwest Michigan.