3 poems

by mary c fogg

illustrations by jacqueline le mot

pictures pictures on walls - mostly unnoticed, once in a great while, a visitor looks up and suddenly asks, who is that? and the host, wakened from the day says, oh that is aunt so and so, or grandmother so and so, and then the visitor, satisfied or not, nods politely or perhaps remarks - how solemn they all looked back then! - so long long ago - to be fixed forever in one pose or to be forgotten - i know which i would choose - but then -

grandfather grandfather was said to never smile, except when engaged in slicing meat or, briefly, after he swallowed his food or drink but in the picture on the wall of aunt lucy’s house, which we visited once a year and which i eagerly looked forward to, i thought i saw just the slightest sign of, i will not say humor, but a message to the world which i, too send forth on a daily basis, that i would be most pleased to smile, even perhaps laugh if only there were something to smile or laugh about

grandmother grandmother’s picture, on the wall at aunt lucy’s never failed to draw a response, from those who had never seen it, and from those, like me, who saw it once a year - always the same response - undisguised mirth, at the forbidding scowl of the old woman, exuding right motives and pure deeds but drawing only smiles - forever