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