Cleaning Out Mother’s House
We scrub the toilet first thing, swat at cobwebs
sweep away corpses of a thousand flies.
Mice have made nests in the brittle letters
that reveal our Pappy’s voluptuous affair
(who the heck was Dolores?), his failed campaign
to bring our father home from the Pacific.
He well knew how the army poured whiskey
down the throats of boys facing death
at Iwo Jima, how addicted he was
already. Craving sugar, we drive to the Acme
for the Butterscotch Krimpets of childhood.
We peel off the icing, fold it against our tongues
feel the sweet velvet on the roof of our mouths
the sugar rush through our fractured souls.
This idea is inspired by a prompt a friend shared from the Key West Literary Seminar. Food brings up so many memories and opportunities for exploration. I found several “ins” to poems from the answers to Part 1, not all of them even being about food, some serious and some just fun.
Part 1: Write responses to the following prompts. Don’t spend a lot of time; just go with the first things that come to mind.
I eat
- to remember
- to forget my woes
- symbols of childhood
- too much of
- for the strength to go on
- food that loves me back
- bittersweet memories
- no enemy foods
- foods that define me
Part 2: Choose one or more of your answers and use it to inspire a poem in any form.
What Inspires You
• Workshops that grow out of classes when a group of students decides to continue to meet or exchange poems. By far the most inspiring way to keep writing for me!
• Ellen Bass’s Living Room Craft Talks and her Truth and Beauty workshops
• Grub Street classes (many available on Zoom or online)
• Provincetown Fine Arts Center summer workshops
• Binders Full of Women and Nonbinary Poets group on Facebook
Bio
Grace Massey is a poet, classical ballet and Baroque dancer, gardener, and socializer of feral cats. Grace has a BA from Smith College, an MA in English from Boston University, and has worked in educational publishing for many years. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and have been published in numerous journals, including Quartet, Thimble, Lily Poetry Review, and One Art. Her chapbook, A Future with Bromeliads (River Glass Books), explores grief, family, music, dance, and the natural world. Grace lives in Newton, Massachusetts. She can be reached at gracemasseypoet.com/
Find the Spring 2026 Issue HERE
Previous NPM 2026 poets
| April 1 | Amy Forstadt |
| April 2 | Annette Sisson |
| April 3 | Beth Kanell |
| April 4 | Bonnie Proudfoot |
| April 5 | Charles Stringer |
| April 6 | D. Dina Friedman |
| April 7 | David Colodney |
| April 8 | Deanna Ludwin |
| April 9 | Eileen Pettycrew |
| April 10 | Felice Alexandra |
| April 11 | Grace Massey |