I revise my grandmother's autobiography according to her name
by Jeri Theriault 

I revise my grandmother’s autobiography according to her name

by Jeri Theriault

for Mamie Virginia DuLac (1884-1963)

born   trout-deep in murk

& reed   I silk-lake   saw

sky through gray-green  

flashed fin & shone   weightless  

aqueous   lymph   blood  

liquid   until I grew hands

to grasp my young man’s

boat rose from strength

to strangeness—farmhouse 

store—a bargain made  

words & bread   babes

happy until that day

I waded in again 

baptized &

swam away