That Was Then: Poems 1976 to 1984

By Margaret Holmes

That Was Then is a selection of midlife poems about midlife in the mid-1970s and 1980s. Tender, biting, silly, and honest; religion, spiders, adultery, and death all have their moments in That Was Then.
Leaving us to wonder What Comes Next?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499043167

Margaret Holmes

Margaret Holmes, a self-described Renaissance Dilettante has not yet found a topic of no interest nor has she found a role model. Travel, performance, hang gliding, volunteering, teaching, dieting—although each amusing in its own way, none was enough. Those who did these things full time were to be admired, but not necessarily emulated. In what has become a surprisingly lengthy life, whenever two roads diverged, she usually selected the one less suitable. That has made a lot, if not all, the difference. Oh well.

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Copyright © 2014 by Margaret Holmes.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911513

ISBN:        Hardcover        978-1-4990-4318-1

                  Softcover         978-1-4990-4317-4

                  eBook              978-1-4990-4316-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 07/24/2014

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Contents

1976 WELL, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

I’M ONLY 33

Other Woman

Answering Service

Obligation

Consider The Cold

Freaks

Crossing The Country

This I Know

Winds

1977 COLD AND SALTY THINGS

Other Woman

Manual

Shoes

Headline

Collection

Funerals

Margarita

Allison Wonderland Holmes

Plains

Autograph

1978

1979 CHRISTMAS BRUNCH

Christmas Brunch

Scientific Method

Luxuries

379-3422

Erotic Poetry

Teacher

Roll Call

1980 A QUEUE OF SUNDAYS

Milk

Sonnet

Best Friend

Earth:quake / Mother:fault

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Wkrp

New Decade

1981 SEX

AND THE

SPIRITUALLY HANDICAPPED

Stop, Look & Listen

Not My Neighbor, You, Or Your Wimpy Kid, Mister!

Dial Tone

Nap

1982 ALONE AT LAST

Good experience

Redhead

Key

Adult

Self-sufficient

Death penalty

Tank

Snickers

Daydreams

With love from robert

1983 HOLMES MAKING

PLANS TO RETIRE

BY CHRISTMAS

An Act Of God

November 22, 1983

Penis Pity

The Man Who Sold Soles

Withdrawal

Window

1984 URBAN HERMIT

The Official Homeless

Jet Lag

Esperar

Urban Hermit

1976

WELL, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

I’M ONLY 33

OTHER WOMAN

I have a friend

Who once made me a birthday cake

The day before she met my husband

At the Holiday Inn.

I told a story.

"When I was twenty and pregnant,

And wanted nothing more,

My candles were lighted.

I sat until they’d nearly burned out.

I couldn’t think of a wish.

"Now I’m twenty-nine.

Some things get easier with age."

Those days she made cakes

For her daughter and husband, too,

And took them to Kansas City

Where she got hives.

ANSWERING SERVICE

I’ve never met black Jackie

Who answers for me in her own voice.

You need a good man, she says.

Connected, I am

Doodling as she tells me:

Her husband’s kids

Her hysterectomy

My father called.

A good man.

How does she know?

If anyone’s liberated,

I am.

Sometimes I do, and

Sometimes I don’t:

Paint my toenails

Wear a bra

Use obscenities

Shave my legs.

I don’t have to tiptoe.

But I’ve never shouted, JE-sus CHRIST!

In the presence of a Christian.

And I don’t wear sleeveless dresses

When I’m not shaving.

It’s a question of tact.

That’s what it is.

Tact.

Jackie’s not liberated.

Why, Jackie’s even

Still black.

I listen tactfully,

Doodling.

A good man.

What I want to know right now is

How would