Viola Weinberg

Viola Weinberg is a journalist living in Sacramento, California. She is a

poet and a short story writer. She was a finalist in this year's Thomas

Wolfe Award for Fiction, for Lorenzo's Story. She can be reached at

neruda@earthling.net.

A Family of Women in Love's Kitchen:

Rage of the Maven

Once while dining at the club

She went crazy, she stood and tore her

Tailored linen blouse to shreds

The place was speechless

For a full minute pearl buttons flew

No silver stirred, no glass was raised

At other tables, other women

Sat with their ankles crossed

In dresses of georgette and chiffon

They looked dimly into their plates

It was Sunday, Family Day at the club

But at our table, her big breasts

Were falling out of their white cups

And the caw that uttered from her throat

Bounced from the buffet table to the pool

Just as suddenly, she swept through

The room like a stately yacht-

Her flapping napkin flown low across the bow

Viola Weinberg