Two Poems
Susan McLean

Mrs. Reed Addresses Her Maker

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You have some nerve, Miss Brontë, to portray
that prissy sham Jane Eyre forgiving me
after I’d foiled her windfall legacy
by claiming she was dead. That’s not the way
rage works. You ought to know. You hold a grudge
better than any. All your books contain
caricatures of those who’ve caused you pain,
whom you arraign before a hanging judge.
My son John Reed, a spoiled and spiteful man,
is he not based on Branwell, your weak brother?
Are not Eliza and Georgiana other
dark cartoons of Emily and Anne?
Revenge is how the winners play the game.
You may disclaim it, but you do the same.​

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Susan’s notes:​​ “‘Mrs. Reed Addresses Her Maker’ was inspired by my noticing that the family Jane Eyre is raised in is a dark cartoon of Charlotte Brontë’s own family, with one brother and two sisters. I know from reading about the author that she often used events and people from her own life as the basis of characters and situations in her novels and that she was particularly harsh in her characterization of those who had caused her pain in real life.”

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Firstborn

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You focus on them fixedly, the first
part of you that leaves but stays alive—
as if your hand could crawl and cry and thirst.
Although they need your care just to survive,
they’re out of your control. Of course they’re cursed.
You’re vulnerable through them. For them to thrive,
you sacrifice and save, your funds disbursed
to smooth their way. You hope they will arrive.

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The firstborn suffer hardest from the friction
between their parents’ pride, control, and loss:
restive, rebellious, always in the wrong.
And when each choice of theirs is your affliction,
they stumble toward a place they can belong:
displayed on a front page or on a cross.

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Susan’s notes: “‘Firstborn’ explores the pattern I’ve noticed, in my own family and others, that parents are often most controlling with their oldest child and lighten up with their subsequent children. The tensions this creates between the parents and the firstborn can go either way: firstborns include a lot of high achievers, but may also develop problems with control.”

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Both poems published in Snakeskin, June 2025

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Susan McLean is a retired English professor from Southwest Minnesota State University. She has published two poetry collections, The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife, and one book of translations of Latin poems by Martial, Selected Epigrams. Her third poetry book, Daylight Losing Time, is forthcoming from Able Muse Press.

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