Photo: My mother, Margaret Bryant, age 34,
wearing the black dress described in the poem.
I was also 34 years of age at the time I received
"The Gift" . . . Christmas, 1997
- The Gift
"Come here sweetheart, I have a gift for you",
Then from her closet came a memory,
a dress she'd worn (from 1962).
Black, 'shirt-style',
cotton, well above the knee,
the one my father
loved to see her in,
now thirty-some years
later fitting me,
this heirloom saved
for one who 'wasn't' then.
I've seen a picture
of her in *that* dress.
She was so lovely
with a pretty smile.
And she would wish
for me not any less
than that my years
should wear a tender style.
I am my mother in another
age.
Within her book I
am a living page.
- Anne Bryant-Hamon
- © 1998
