ALBUM

To my mother’s 1940 autograph album

I have added my name. The old names

Wake and whisper to each other.

My grandfather, who circled “Dad:

Says “Who is this old man?

Why does he say he knows me?”

My aunt says “I’ve just learned script!

Surely my sister and I will forever

Love each other as we do now”

Someone has written upside down;

Someone always does. A friend signs herself

“Your wild Rose.” Another looks forward

To reading my mother’s first novel.

There is a list of class leaders; Shirley Stauber

Is most cheerful and most devil-may care;

My mother is wittiest. Her favorite books

Are Rebecca and Little Women. Her high school?

Thomas Jefferson. She intends to go

To the University of Southern California

And be a journalist. Her hero

Is her father who, over the years,

Fell from that position