Beach bag, a plastic handle each,
Mother and I yank hard right and left
to keep the bag from touching
the narrow buckling street—
the furled red, white, and green umbrella,
a rifle on her right shoulder,
its extension pole on my left.

When I want to swim, I cover myself
with the beach blanket, open my Nancy Drew.
It works: Mother jerks me up by the wrist.
She wants me to hold onto her
in the water, and the lifelines
roped between poles.
At least I’m jumping waves.

I reach for the watermelon.
She gives me the peach I really want.
Yes! She eats the warm watermelon.
And Good. She’s not onto me, yet.

I Coppertone her arms, legs, back,
tell her I don’t like the smell
She lotions my shoulders.
I breathe in its sweet perfume.

Five o’clock—peeling, gritty
crotch and ears—I forget the game.
Let’s go, I say.

She grins—adjusts herself
in the low chair, settles into
my new mystery—
The Clue of the Dancing Puppet.

Susanna Rich is a bilingual Hungarian-American poet and translator, a Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing (Hungary), a Collegium Budapest Fellow, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Kean University (NJ). With two Emmy Award nominations for poetry, Susanna is founding producer and principal performer at Wild Nights Productions, LLC. Her repertoire includes her musical Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will and ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Holocaust.