Legacy

I think of you sitting in a kitchen chair,The only customer of your granddaughters' salon.You lean over For Ellie to curl your hair,Extend hand for Grace to paint your nails,You chat with talkative Jane, of whom you marvel because she is"Actually Happy to sweep the floor and do it well,""You should meet my three precious granddaughters", you say,and "oh, it would be splendid if you could meet them. And they giggle at that because they are the splendid ones."Recently Ellie hung a sequined-filled watercolor in the hallway galleryJust over there.Grace had the big double in last weeks championship game ("It wasn't the championship, Nanny",Grace corrected). And,"Just yesterday, Jane cart-wheeled across the entire backyard,Like a pinwheel. So surely next year she will star in gymnastics".

This first spring they have embroidered your gravestoneWith painted pebbles. They worry about how to keep the crab grass from overgrowing your stone.Grace is ten and says she wishes she could drive so that she could tend to it more often.