When

"When you come for me Grim reaper, try to catch me out-of-doors in touch with some living part of this, my favourite planet"

to a great woman, now deceased (Mykia Tylor) from the collection "Nutshell people and other biota"


To the kid on Mother's Day

Forget MOTHERLOVE
It comes with the package
neatly enclosed in the caul,
Common to house cats,
Fierce to wild dogs,
probably porcupines,

I should like to confess
(Having been, by nature,
always more prone to criticize,
than praise)
I should like you to know
That i love what the kid has become
That this fondness that i feel
Isn't because, but in spite of
Your being my son



** just so you know, tiziana, that these words move me today as they did then (3 years ago) when you first sent them.