Nancy King

Performance

for Pam

Don Ho was in the top ten with his catchy

tune about tiny bubbles.

We didn’t drink, but our four-year-old

daughter and I sang about wine

that would make you feel fine all over.

We used cooking spoons for microphones

and exaggerated the highs, the lows, and the slows

as if we were on Broadway with an audience.

The preacher from the First

Free Will Baptist Church down the road

laid a guilt trip on my husband

and me for not raising our children

with the proper foundation.

Sunday, true to our word, we were there.

I left our daughter in the kindergarten class,

and as I was turning to leave,

closing the door softly behind me, I heard

her bunned, bespectacled, and buttoned-

tight teacher asking, Does anyone

have a song they’d like to sing?