Ren Pike

The Milk

Charmaine & Jo-Lee read the news on channel 7.
They’re weekend respite. Never getting daily practice
with co-host patter. But they do their best. When a piece
runs about fires near the bluff, they try hard to seem concerned.
Jo-Lee says: That’s bad. Charmaine forces her lips into a sad frown
even as her tattooed eyebrows remain skeptical.

On Saturdays, when I make noodles, then slip onto the couch in defeat,
Jo-Lee & Charmaine carry me through all the chewing, swallowing.

Farm girl, Jo-Lee wears puff-sleeved peasant blouses. Jewel tones.
Arms extra ropey. Head teetering. The camera guys sometimes
fuck with her. Filming while she cleans deep red lipstick
off her teeth or when she compulsively adjusts her white-blonde hair.
Charmaine skews more aging-goth-at-the-rodeo. Black denim dresses.
Dark lip. When the teleprompter’s out of order (weekend regular)
Jo-Lee coughs. Shuffles papers. Carries on doggedly.
Her emphasis not quite in the saddle. While Charmaine deflects.
Her harsh laugh aimed off screen.

They remind me of girls I knew in high school. The ones
who rode the bus. Ready to throw-down over any slight.
Smokers. Drinkers. Party girls with an extra layer of shellac.
My mother called them hard. My grandmother said:
They’re a rag on every bush. She’d say: Who wants to buy
a cow, if you can get the milk for free? That was her way.
I never really thought much about it. So old fashioned.
But now, I think about it all the time.

They had milk. They still have milk. They stand up there
saying: Here’s the milk. HERE’S THE EFFIN’ MILK!

Last Thursday, on my walk to the credit union, I passed a flyer
stapled to a pole. Cage fighting for a cause. Jo-Lee smiling
in one corner. Her puff sleeves framing. Her fists
on her hips. Something, something, top billing.
I didn’t need to stop and read.

Ren Pike grew up in Newfoundland. Through sheer luck, she was born into a family who understood the exceptional value of a library card. When she is not writing, she wrangles data in Calgary, Canada.  http://pike.headstaller.com/