My mother's stepmother Fanny
Did not, every witness agrees, love her
But kept her marriage bargain and
Taught the child all manner of things
Such as how to fold contour sheets
How to sew a dress from a pattern
How to buy meat, vegetables, fruit
How to bargain and not be cheated.
In the kitchen of her house her mother Jenny
Spent her days -- a woman so powerful
That I know many stories about her
And only two about her husband and both of them
Are mostly about Jenny anyway. She ruled the kitchen
But where her husband spent his days
Who knows? Perhaps to spite her daughter
Jenny was madly in love with my mother
And taught her that opals and peacock feathers
Bring bad luck and that a knife must never
Be given to a friend; demand something for it --
A penny will do -- or it will cut the friendship.
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