She Wore a Cotton Day Dress

She wore a cotton day dress

all flowered and sensible

With her orthopedic shoes

            for her fallen arches

And a smile that lit up the room

She wore a smile to cover

            the secrets and the scandal

With her beautiful eyes

            and snow white hair

And those mints in the

            “be careful” glass jar

She wore costume jewelry

            and a corsage every Mother’s Day

With her clip-on earrings

            to hide that one earlobe

            longer than the other

And a heavy green coat that

            buttoned at the neck

She wore her title of Nurse

            proudly although she hadn’t

            worked in decades

With her sister Bea

And unspeakable memories

            too frightening to repeat

Sometimes I see her

            long after she’s been gone.

God’s gift to me. A reminder

            that she isn’t far.

She wears a cotton day dress

            all flowered and sensible

With her orthopedic shoes

            for her fallen arches

And a smile that lights up the room.