Another Life - June 11, 2026

in the years us kids were in school,

mom turned on the afternoon soaps

popularized in the 60’s when beautiful

actors played the rich and powerful,

lush with love, desire, secrets, betrayal,

with enough realism to forget the acting

and produce at least one hand-over-

mouth shocker of a moment each episode

maybe mom lived another life during those

hours, finding characters she was attracted

to and those hated for deceit, treachery

she never discussed those afternoons

when we arrived home, she was always hunched

over a cutting board or pot on a burner

the refrigerator door was in constant motion

to us she had only one life –our mother,

a rock of support and purpose

to have watched her sitting on the sofa, half-

eaten sandwich plate bound and glass of milk

in hand, watching “As the World Turns”,

I don’t know, with the blindness of our needs,

would have really seen her?