Five pronouncements he gave
Never found a place in my brain
First:
You look like that woman on the cover–
That magazine on the hamper–
(A French movie star?! the only one there)
I struggled to dis-decree the decree
I knew I had very well heard
And:
You were nothing special as a child
But you are rather something now
Yes, I knew I had very well heard
Summary:
You'll turn out taller than the the lot of them
And you'll call yourself Neysa
And I came to exist indeed
Even without his decrees
And incantations
His making me with his words
Postscript:
But forty years later
I in early elder, he in very elder
I‘d seen my face was
Like his grandmother‘s
And wondered at it–
Yes, well, maybe so he said–
The ugliest woman alive
She sat in the back yard
Swilling gin and chewing tobacco
She‘d save her dirty bathwater for me.
Now he is gone and
I am age seventy-three
Done almost full-circle and
Dis-decreed of all decrees.