My mother in law
Has excellent taste
In books
(by that I mean, of course,
that her tastes are similar to mine)

Her bookshelves have books that are the same as the ones
on my bookshelf
(sometimes exactly the same -
she borrows -
I borrow)

And I went to the bathroom in her new apartment
and under the sink, was the basket
which had been cleaned out
and there was only one book in the basket
so I took it out
Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

And I opened it up
Ode to my Uterus
My breast
Menstruation at Forty
And it turns out

Anne Sexton sucks
Sucks like a baby girl at her mother’s sagging, tired breast
Sucks like a teenager in the backseat with the captain of the football team, giving her hope of a better life
Sucks like the vacuum cleaner of a forty year old housewife who never got to take that trip to South America she had always wanted to take
Sucks like the lungs of the elderly woman, dying alone of asthma while her grandchildren play in New York City

I was disappointed
And left the bathroom
And turned on my computer
And my mother-in-law
And my wife
Think I am writing a little anecdote about my daughter

Fuck you, Anne Sexton.