In the middle of the night
When you wake and can’t go back to sleep
Close your eyes.
You will hear Nana and Poppy playing
penny ante poker in the next room
beyond the closed door of their apartment on Central Avenue
And you’ll recognize the muffled voices of
Honey and Ethel and Aunt Mary Ford
who had her glass of four-finger scotch by her elbow and whose
trumpet-blast laugh you’d know anywhere
And you’ll hear your grandparents arguing over which card
Is wild in Folly the Queen
To stay out of the fray Aunt Mary takes a quarter stick
of Wrigley’s gum out of the little white box
she’s placed next to her winnings
and chews, pursing her blood-red lipstick
and raising her penciled-in eyebrows at her brother because
as usual, she secretly agrees with Nana
Which lets Honey, who hates conflict of any kind,
take his unfiltered smoke break out back so he could also
have a swig without Ethel seeing
Such that by the time the backdoor slaps shut and Honey wobbles
Back to his seat and Ethel, who is no fool, smells the liquor on him
And Nana concedes to Pop so they can continue the hand,
the halo from the light over the dining room table
slips under the bedroom door.