The Plan
She was going home alone
to announce that she and Phil
were engaged.
Phil had been offered
a job at NYU; Jane
would leave Michigan
and start law school
there too. But
she feared
disapproval
from her folks,
a scene blunt
as dead
sticks.
Was it because
he was
Jewish. Was it
because he was
a Marxist.
Or was it
just because
he would take her
to a world far removed
from their own.
She hashed it out with her sister
for hours on the phone.
The plan: a night
at home, alone,
to weather the storm;
Phil to join her
in a few days.
Just trust me on this one, Barb
Trust me
was the last thing
to her sister that
Jane would say.
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