We watched season 5 of Fargo

And began speaking in the accent

The charming version

Not the south suburbs slow march of

nasal nausea

that is my own

In the mornings we speak this way

Oh hiiiiiya der sweetie!

and you make me coffee and pancakes

Bisquick!

We have started calling these

“Midwestern Mornings”

as romantic as the purr of an ooooooh gosh

and service with a smile

I want to tell you about

Midwestern mornings

The other meaning

A wasp-stung mother climbing precariously onto a chair

Shrieking loud enough for the neighbors

and threatening to drive into a lake

There’s always a lake somewhere a little too close for comfort

(so you take it seriously)

Midwestern Mornings

Shock your lungs cold or entombed alive hot

A land of extremes

A place where you had better get good with disappointment

And seeing her on the lawn

splayed out like a Wyeth painting

self sacrifice and a high pitched sick

that lives behind the eyes

I really don’t know how anyone Mothers

without

Driving into a lake

So who am I to talk?

Oh gosh, you hit the gas a little too hard der dont cha knowww

My body is a homeland

of Service with a smile

Heat lightning

And after awhile

Shock your lungs cold

There is a part of me still alive at the bottom

The top layer of water picture postcard frozen

A commercial for Campbell’s tomato soup

You know the tomatoes really are the bessstttttt fresh off the vine in the summer

don’t cha knowwwww