LITERARY MOTHER

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:35pm

I caught an internal breath

after hanging The Preserved Newspaper Clipping

from The New York Times Book Review

dated June 4,1978 —

“Be A Literary Critic! Earn Big Bucks!”

hung first by Scotch Tape

in My Mother’s Valley Cottage Study

now hung, framed, in My Hawk Kitchen —

Did My Heart Really Skip

as I thought of My Literary Mother

Who, when I was eleven,

redacted Nova Scotia’s License Plate Slogan

“Canada’s Ocean Play Ground”

with black electricians tape?