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Mona Lisa Saloy.
“Daddy’s Philosophy: II.”

© Mona Lisa Saloy.
Used by permission.
All rights reserved.

Daddy loves coffee with chicory

in his cream and sugar

every morning just after 5:30.

Says he eats to keep from

getting hungry.

At 86, he forgets

when and what he eats

especially Hagendaz on a stick,

can inhale one after another with

a smile like sunshine

while peeling away

the plastic wrap.

He sees me watching,

says that’s what it means.

What? I ask.

La joi de vivre, he says.

The joy of life? I ask.

Sure, the New Orleans motto, he says,

the reasons for heavenly hips,

drumstick thighs, and

hug-able bellies.

Yeah, ya right,

even the French say that Daddy.

No girl, not like we do.

“We work like we don’t need the money.

We love like we never been hurt.

We dance like nobody’s watching.

We eat like there’s no tomorrow.”


Works

Saloy, Mona Lisa. Red Beans and Ricely Yours: Poems. New Odyssey Series. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Pr., 2005.

Saloy, Mona Lisa. Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems. New Odyssey Series. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Pr., 2014. © Mona Lisa Saloy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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