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This poem needs a rewrite--just having trouble finding my in--please review to help. |
| Aunty Marge had always been a giver. Bestowing what her Old Age Pension Left behind after the home took its cut. As she decayed—her mind faster than her body— Uniformity became an obsession: Each Christmas a surprise only for the first to find her gift: “Patty-stackers!” Mom hooted. “Give me the phone.” Sisters share these moments, I hear, “Better than the shelf paper,” Cold and electric, fall from the receiver, Rolling unnoticed under a pile of crumpled wrapping To lie waiting to be discarded. I opened the chest of drawers, The guestroom’s finest piece of furniture: Dark wood glistening and smooth: A cool surface reflecting a dark shadow: An outline of me. The drawer was filled with lilacs—no: An odor of lilac, an…approximation. “Are you crying?” she asked. You kept Marge’s shelf paper. “No, Mom—just remembering.” I tore a corner of the paper, lining my wallet With the gift of lilacs. |