This is for Her, 2006

This is for Her, 2006

This is for her.
She was with me
for a while & now
she’s not.

It was good when
we were together. She
would understand this now.
I would just have to tell her.
She wouldn’t have questions.
She’d just know. I could tell
her the truth. Simply.

I look like her except I have the
Jewish hair. She used to hate Jews
until I came along & was one. That
threw her for a loop. She always used
to say that Shirley didn’t treat me right.
It was good to hear her give me that reality.

I’m going to wear her dress to
my baby’s wedding. She was named
the same. It’s bright & retro. She should
have been there. She’d be ninety-eight. No
one lives that long, except those Scotish women.
But, she wasn’t one of those. She’s just not.

I think about her now. I’m almost free. She
would be smiling–liking that I work, that I am
married happily. Her house was like mine now.
It’s a grandma’s house. It’s smaller. Her’s was
an old farm house or so she wished. She
belonged in the country surrounded by
fields of animals. I own one now. One-ninth.

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