A half a century
and a quarter score
have aged
a piano-teaching
twelve year old
in a town of thirty-five
- my mother
How to measure
a woman's legacy?
2 offspring
3 husbands
2 pigtails
and one career.
To study her trail
Joan Marie Hall
esquire
leaves one with
abogada paperweights
camp-fashioned crafts
supreme court souvenirs
travelogues of foreign feasts
and photographs
of a blonde woman
in a red stetson
smiling broadly
with important men.
A reoccuring theme -
profound respect
and undying admiration
fostered unwittingly
by integrity
discipline
hard work
by Joan Hall.
And now
13 April arrives
again
And whether a
counting is in order:
23 for Colin
19 for Justin
15 for Wes
a few for Rod
Jenner and Block
can both lay claim to 29
while George has
shared five -
these next 55 are
her own.
- J. Hall
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