Sunday Shame

Reilly Smith

November 20, 2022

It doesn’t know to feel ashamed

that its name means lazy and sinful.

Like my little sister

after her abortion, when our father

changed her name from Molly to Molly.

Marianne Kunkel, “A Sloth First Hears Its Name”

We sit at the dinner table—round, handed-down

From grandma to mom and then someday to me.

Out of four chairs, we fill three. A memory sits

empty between me and dad. Molly

doesn’t come to dinner anymore. We pass

peas and pleasantries over the empty plate,

and Mom and I avoid eye contact. Dad 

tells the table about his week between smacks.

Maybe we all know

Sunday dinners are as dead as Molly’s baby,

but Dad won’t let us move on. He knows

Mom and I drove her to the clinic. We are not

forgiven.

Reilly Smith is a novice poet, a mother, and a graduate student of English at Lamar University.