I saw, in all the girls,
something I wanted to be.
In Leann,
a family, solidified in marriage;
in Kath,
a funlovingness,
& Donna,
a carefree spirit.

They had Fall Festival,
not Trick-or-Treat.
They had Trunk-or-Treat,
but no Halloween masks—
no frames for the windows of the soul.

Mother toasted to love,
David, to peace,
& hope floated within me
like sherbet in the ginger ale
we drank
to cleanse our palates
from evil.

They had given my mother
a peace she had never known.
What she’d withheld from us,
she gave to them.

Leann was a Southern belle,
Kath, a rodeo queen,
but I was Heidi,
the Church was Frankfurt,
& David,
my beloved mountains.