For S.D.S.

I think I like the little oxalis flowers best of all. They thrive and survive in the lawn, springing up a few days after they're mowed down with the grass. Every time I look at them, I remember SDS, remember being in the yard at Hammond Camp with all the flowers blooming, the hollyhocks so high I couldn't see the top, and the rump and straw hat of Granny bent over some plant.

***

For S.D.S.

I can remember when

you were so beautiful,

red hair tucked under a

floppy straw hat,

working the magic you

did in the garden to

make the sunflowers grow

tall as a tree.

The cream colored rose with a

blush at the center, bloomed

lushly, its great blossoms

nodding, and you

the same color, with russet curls

straying from under the

straw colored bonnet, seemed

kin to the flowers.

Oh, daffodils, roses, sweet

peas and blue violets, your

sisters or children, come

back every year;

but why should this be, with the

rose blushing, cream colored,

russet framed face of you

vanished and gone?