The prime of Miss Annie McCarrick had passed,
but the prime of Miss Laurie Nolan was coming fast.
Unmarried, Mother had always been at her prime.

Mother & David’s pasts were a mystery,
their presents, uncertain,
their futures, set like a precious stone
in a tiny, golden halo.

Their churches were called wards,
their youth groups, institutes.
They served funeral potatoes at
lively potlucks.
Peculiar people, these Mormons were.

I was asked to pray in public,
when I had never prayed in private.
I was asked to do unnatural things
for the sake of the supernatural.

I prayed from memory,
& not from my heart,
for my heart had no memory
of prayer.