DISPATCHES FROM THE CORNER OF HOLLYWOOD AND MOTHERHOOD
By Mia Sara
The Middle Ages
It’s 11:55 in Hollywood, a Monday
four days after a lunar eclipse, so
I’m eating a salad at Erewhon
because I have to drive all the way
to Marina Del Rey for 2:00
and I keep forgetting to eat lunch.
I sit at the last table out on Beverly
and avoid making eye contact
with the lanky girl in “mom” jeans
putting money in her meter.
I check emails
on my iPad mini (phone’s too small)
but I don’t get many from people
I really know, just junk stuff
and J. Crew, or petitions from MoveOn.Org.
I sign most of them just because
Robert Reich makes these videos
that seem pretty reasonable
and I guess that’s better than nuts
plus he reminds me of my favorite
teachers who I’ve been thinking about
now my daughter is in Middle School
and I remember Middle School like it was
yesterday when I didn’t know
who I was supposed to be
while my girl was crying in the
laundry room asking me why
does everything have to change
and I just held her and said nothing.
Mia Sara used to be an actress, but recovered her senses and now she writes. Her work has been published in Superstition Review, Helix, poemmemoirstory, The Summerset Review, PANK, the Write Room, among many others. Her chapbook, Mid-Life With Gorilla was published by Dusie Press, and she had a long running column “Wrought and Found” for PANK Magazine. She lives between New York City and Los Angeles with her husband, Brian Henson, and her children. Read more from Mia at her website.