poetry 2 me

This is for my favorite aunt, T,

I wanted you to know what you mean to me!

I love you so very much

That I am writing in rhyme and such.

When it comes to aunts, there is no contest!

You, Tina, are the best!

Now that you know that you are # one,

all my silly rhyming is done!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Wow.
My first niece, Christina Ann, wrote that for me and had inserted it into the Valentine's Day card she gave me today.
I haven't had anyone write a poem to me or for me since my Uncle Jimmy did when I was eighteen years old. My family was down in Waycross, visiting my maternal grandparents, and we were all out in the yard, enjoying a summer evening. The moon was full and the sky was clear, much as it will be tonight.
As I said, we were all outside, and my Uncle had asked me what I thought the moon looked like, in that dark and starry sky. I replied that it looked like a bright, shiny nickel, on a black velvet background. We went on talking about a variety of things, but my description and teenaged enthusiasm lit a fire in his mind and he wrote the poem that evening in the inside cover of one of his literature books from college. I know this, because he gave me the book the next day.
Sadly, I no longer have the book. In a fit of pique about twenty years ago, believing myself to be showing solidarity with my mother and her anger at her brother's actions, I destroyed the book. I tore it up and burned it.
I wish I still had the poem, destroyed so long ago.
I wish I still had my Uncle Jimmy, dead for the past five years.
I wish I still had Mama, gone from my life for thirteen years.
Sigh.
But I do still have my beautiful first niece! And we are here together in one of our favorite places in the world!
Smile!!!
She will soon be out of the shower and we will go to the Valentine's Day party thrown by Barbara and Andrew at the Daytona Beach Regency. Then we'll be off to MOAS for the intaglio and Napoleon exhibits before they vacate the spaces there. And we'll finish the evening at Cinematique, watching "Girl on A Bicycle" and the new Broadway rendition of "Romeo and Juliet", starring Orlando Bloom! Ooh la la!
Later, y'all!