Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin

My mother says I’m lucky.
When she was sixty
her crows’ feet had spread
until it looked like crows
had walked all over her face.

“Your skin comes
from your father’s side of the family,”
she says, “the Italian side.
They don’t get wrinkles.
It’s all that olive oil.

“Look at your Aunt Rosa.
Her skin was so smooth
the mortician didn’t even need to use makeup,
but he did, of course,
they all do, heaven knows why.
Who wants to look like a madam
when they’re dead?
Don’t let them do it to me.”

Published in Ilya's Honey Spring 2004 and Nerve Cowboy Spring 2006