downstairs

by Tina Tocco


After Daddy’s head
drops for the night

and my brother and I
get to our knees

to mop the beer
with old factory shirts we keep

for this very thing—
and after we pin the sports section

out on the line
to dry the scores

dribbled with Ballantine—
and after we pull beans and cheese

off plastic plates
and poke it down the drain

because forks scrape—
and after we run water

slow and cold into the bath
so the pipes don’t knock

and stand watch for each other
while we bathe

just in case—

after this
we slip downstairs

and stroke Daddy’s shoulder
and ask,

the way Mom used to,
please

would he take the sports section
off the line

if he wakes up
for work

on account of Mrs. Walker
over the fence

who talks.


* * * * *

"Downstairs" was previously published in Inkwell, Fall 2007.

Tina Tocco is a Pushcart Prize nominee.  Her work has appeared in various journals, including New Ohio Review, River Styx, Crab Creek Review, Roanoke Review, Passages North, Potomac Review, Portland Review, and The Comstock Review. Her poetry was anthologized in Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana (Fordham University Press, 2008) and the Italian-American women’s anthology #Me Too, Anch’io (Poets Wear Prada, 2020). Tina earned her MFA in creative writing from Manhattanville University, where she was editor-in-chief of Inkwell. She also writes flash fiction, teaches creative writing, and has recently completed her first middle grade novel.