Salisbury Steak

It was the best TV dinner I ever ate,
(though I didn’t eat them often)—
Banquet Salisbury Steak.
Yes, that one! With the fake
mashed potatoes, maybe some peas.
And the meat, the meat! There was nothing
better, charred bits of processed so called beef
swimming in brown gummy gravy
encircled on a metal tray,
at least as good, maybe even superior
to the homemade iced brownies
we ate for dessert.
Early-1970s. Aunt Carolyn’s avocado
and burnt orange Indianapolis kitchen.
Our bodies, glowing from the inside out,
Our sun-singed skin. Our cores
molten, oozing into experience.
Everything we tasted was golden.
Days at the subdivision swimming pool,
cannonballing from the high dive,
Beverly, Susan, and I,
Top 40 AM hits blaring—
Tommy James proclaiming how he digged snow
and rain and bright sunshiiiiine,
Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds pleading
Don’t pull your love out on me, Baby,
as we entertained fantasies
of muscled, mustachioed life guards.
Days of little or no sunscreen.
Days when those cool high school aged
girls we emulated slathered their skin
with baby oil, their long limbs
glistening, glistening.
And the gravy. Let’s get back to that gravy!
Fearless, silky, refusing to make excuses,
it gushed over mashed potatoes and peas, seeped
into neighboring carrots, all the while
encased in unapologetic aluminum,
leaving only a slight metallic aftertaste—
so, so small. We hardly noticed.

Sarah A. Rae (she/her). Publications include her chapbook, Someplace Else (dancing girl press, 2020), and poetry appearing in Jet Fuel Review, Poemeleon, Gyroscope Review. Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. Her poem “After Totality,” was recently named a Finalist in the 16th annual contest issue sponsored by Naugatuck River Review. Her translations of poems by Mexican poet Guadalupe Ángela feature online in the translation journal Ezra and in Jill! A Woman+ in Translation Reading Series. She lives in Chicago, and can be found online at saraepoet.com.