[Critique Group 1] Sally's June submission

[Sally Rosenthal]

                                WHAT I KNOW ABOUT ELIZA

 

 

What I know about Eliza

Would scarcely fill a page,

Yet, down the centuries between us,

I carry her essence within me.

 

Beyond DNA, my great-grandmother and I

Share traits this Yorkshire farmwife

Passed on to me through the bloodline

Of strong, resilient women

Who met adversity with courage and humor. 

 

A small woman who could neither read nor write,.

Eliza knew the sums necessary 

To sell Home-made toffee and peppermints

>From a front room sweets shop

And manage the farm's accounts.

 

With her quiet husband Thomas, she raised ten children,

Tended to sheep and chickens, and played matchmaker

For unsuspecting village rectors and curates.

 

Taking life's pleasures and uncertainties in stride,

She, like a woman of her time and all times,

Took what was on offer and made the best of it,

Passing joy and wisdom through generations

To this American woman dabbling in memories.

 

 

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