In Honolulu, There is a Widow

A poem by Jean Shields Fleming

In Honolulu, there is a widow

who has been diagnosed with something, though she doesn’t say what.

She says she needs money.

I’m sure this is true.

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

And that big payday bonus that they want to give me? I hope

it really is imminent, as they say it is. And what about the prince

who wrote to me from Africa! I never expected such an honor,

being from the Midwest originally. We don’t mix much with royalty there,

unless college athletes count. So it surprises me, in the tinny opera

singing full voice from my spam folder, when I see this:

Occasionally my own name appears on the from line, and I wonder

what drama have I entailed myself in now? I hope I’m reaching out

on behalf of a friend in need, appealing to your better angels, the part

of you that wants to believe, against all odds, that goodness will prevail.

The part of you that knows that we ourselves, we are the goodness.

But even if I tug at your plaqued heartstrings, even if my words

make you twinge with something you long to feel, make you see your life writ large

on the grand stage of All Life, even if what I say unlocks a lost chamber

where memories you thought you’d forgotten smile up at you,

even then, my advice is this:  

Don’t click. Delete me.

Cast me into the ghost realm

of your trash, a binary blip easily dispensed with.

Because surely I mean to scam you.  

I’m a writer after all.

I can make you feel another’s feelings with a twist of the pen.

So yes, delete me. Right away. That’s the sensible thing.

I’ll linger in the bardo between inbox and ether

for 30 days, then be gone forever.

That me, that is.

Because, if I know anything about myself, it’s this:

I will return, undeterred in my quest to expose your kindness.

I believe in your generosity. I know you to be a good

and compassionate being, and before long, I’ll be back,

palms out in supplication, asking for more.

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Jean Shields Fleming is the founder and editor-in-chief of Certain Age. She is the author of Air Burial, a novel, and her work has been published widely. Read an excerpt of her latest novel, All the Reasons Why.

Image:

Rainbow over Honolulu by little plant