Mother's Poem

As a tribute to my mother, a fine poet, I am sharing one of her poems:

Women’s Work?

           The buttons spill across the table 
         as plastic and pearl, metal and bone 
         click together, a glitter of shapes 
         in islands of color spread archipelago. 
         I search through singles and siblings 
         among the flat and globed, 
         opaque and opalescent 
         to match the missing button.

         Where came these strays, I wonder, 
         this history of wardrobes and lives? 
         This one and that belonged to my mother. 
         She who finestitched the fabric of family, 
         now wears the raiment of light.

         Is this what passes from mother to daughter, 
         the simple practice of joinery— 
         of love that unites both sides, 
         that bonds the separate, repairs the rent, 
         that fastens the heart together?

                                  —Jo An C. Simmons, 2000

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Thank you for being a terrific mother. I love you!