Miracle Whip

By Mary Beth Hines

Mother savored the mock
mayo, slathered it
on Wonder Bread with a leaf 
of iceberg lettuce 
amidst a hail 
of salt and pepper. 

She shredded cabbage
and drowned the tendrils, 
mixed it with relish
to home-make tartar,
bought it by the jug 
yet she never had enough. 

I learned to crave the zing
when it first
hits your tongue—a bit 
like a lemon 
but without 
the bitter after. 

I would eat spoonfuls 
after a bad day at school—
satin slipping 
silver through 
my angsty 
teenage body.

And I understood,
without words for it,
how addictions start 
with yearn then bargain 
for that rush 
of soothe and hearten.

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Mary Beth Hines’s debut poetry collection, Winter at a Summer House, was published by Kelsay Books in November 2021. Her poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction appear or will soon appear in Aji Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Feral, Tar River, The MacGuffin, Valparaiso, SWWIM Every Day, and elsewhere. Visit her at www.marybethhines.com.

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