{"id":12152,"date":"2022-02-24T00:48:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T00:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=12152"},"modified":"2022-02-24T17:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T17:06:15","slug":"esmerelda-michael-montlack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=12152","title":{"rendered":"ESMERALDA – Michael Montlack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As real as Santa or the Easter Bunny
whenever my mother muttered your name.
Your father\u2019s late for dinner again!<\/em>
Bet he\u2019s with his girlfriend.<\/em>..Esmeralda.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

She tossed salad in her Tupperware,
letting the dog eat whatever greens fell
to the linoleum. My sister offering to call
the station again\u2014as if she wanted to
catch him. Not see if our mother was lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You sounded so exotic. Like Mexican cities
where The Price Is Right<\/em> sent hysterical winners.
Foreign. Sexy. Naughty. I could picture you:
long wavy brown hair, a red strapless dress,
sleek as one of my mother\u2019s Virginia Slims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever meet Esmeralda?<\/em> I asked.
What\u2019s she like?<\/em> It never dawned on me
to wonder if my mother was jealous.
To ask why she was so casual about it.
It never dawned on me to be afraid
my parents might divorce, that this had<\/em>
to be a joke, that my pot-bellied father\u2014
same oily work pants daily (pale, hairy
butt crack peeking out despite the belt)\u2014
couldn\u2019t possibly have a mistress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he trudged in, my sister and I checked
his collarless t-shirt for lipstick. Perfume
strong enough to out-stink the gasoline.
A long silky brown strand stuck somewhere
to his grime-streaked brow. Always nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinner\u2019s cold<\/em>, Howie, my mother growled.
Maybe you already dined \u2026 with Esmeralda!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubbing his belly, he chuckled. I sure did!<\/em>
But you know I always have room for seconds<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michael Montlack is author of two poetry collections, including Daddy<\/em> (NYQ Books 2020), and editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them<\/em> (University of Wisconsin Press). His poems recently appeared in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, december, The Offing, Cincinnati Review,<\/em> and Poet Lore.<\/em> His photographs have appeared in Phoebe, Northwest Review<\/em> and Gertrude<\/em>. He lives in NYC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As real as Santa or the Easter Bunnywhenever my mother muttered your name.Your father\u2019s late for dinner again!Bet he\u2019s with his girlfriend…Esmeralda. She tossed salad in her Tupperware,letting the dog eat whatever greens fellto the linoleum. My sister offering to callthe station again\u2014as if she wanted tocatch him. Not see if our mother was lying. [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12152"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12188,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12152\/revisions\/12188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}