Jan Ball
American Medal
On the Biedermeier dresser you display
the war medal our friend gave you
to commemorate your 2004 naturalization,
United States of America, 1941-45 stamped
on one side and American Campaign
on the other, the disk suspended from
a striped grosgrain ribbon with colored streaks
of cobalt blue and navy, the white bands like
a vapor trail or the wake of a ship
from the vessels embossed on the second side.
But who was Kenneth J. Mulvey, we have
pondered while putting on our shoes
in the morning, you straightening your tie
in the beveled mirror and now this New
Year’s Eve we have been asked to bring
a favorite object to the dinner party
and you decide to bring the medal. It lies
on the table harmoniously with other objects
that people have chosen from the armory
of their lives, for all of us to guess the owner:
the Swiss Army Knife that you and Steven
bought me in Bordeaux for Mother’s Day,
a young woman’s photo, a wedding ring,
an engraved pen, a small tool in an old box,
two silver dollars, both 1920,
and your American medal waiting
to be identified in this congenial setting.
Before the Wedding in Cuernavaca
Brian is showering then we are all meeting
downstairs next to the poinsettia display
at eleven-fifteen but then it might be eleven-
thirty or we might even be meeting in front
of the recepcion; this is Mexico, after all,
and the manana thing doesn’t seem to be
a stereotype, we’re finding. I’m already
in my usual stretchy black staley gretzinger
wedding dress (as the designer’s name looks
on the label that I just confirmed) with
the potato prints all over it that I can wear
my black Australian opal earrings with,
wide gold bracelet and ruby ring (the
Indian relatives will be covered in gold
bangles; I already saw the groom’s sister
with a diamond stud in her right nostril).
I’ll probably be the only woman among
the stiletto Mexican senoras who is wearing
flat shoes that I should have had reheeled
before packing but my hair looks fine
with just the hotel shampoo and conditioner
and I depilated a few days ago unlike
Laura who I noticed at breakfast depilated
her upper lip just this morning.
