by Susan Terris
You my mother's cousin
Single were like another mother
We talked read played games
Knitted scarves until you met
Davy age 10 Down Syndrome
Son of David widower who proposed
I was 13 needed you but you said
Yes became Davy's mother
And I never again saw you
Then today looked found only
Obituaries David's from '88
Davy 1994 you 25+ years ago
Susan Terris is a freelance editor and the author of 7 books of poetry, 17 chapbooks, 3 artist's books, and 2 plays. Journals include The Southern Review, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Blackbird, The New Verse News, and Ploughshares. She has had poems published both in Pushcart Prize and in Best American Poetry. Her most recent book Dream Fragments won the Swan Scythe Press Award.
