Freda

I can't work, just remembering,
Freda, stiff backed, disapproving,
but dancing at my graduation
telling my mother not to laugh,
so pleased to be included
in academic celebrations.
You have to use words like indomitable
for her rise from Smith St to the direction
of the city's maternity unit,
for her conquest, for so long,
of heart complaints from
childhood Sydenham's chorea,
until defeated by her final operation.
Did her role require silence
on her early life or was it
a protection from remembered pain?
In any case I wish her beloved
poppies were in season
for her funeral.

lmc 15-10-2010