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