So young, so handsome
My father in his Army uniform
My mother with her adoring gaze
Photo taken at an Army base in California
shortly before he shipped out
for Japan in 1943
Did she already know she was pregnant?
Had she told him the news?
They were only recently married
She moved back East to live with her mother
I still have the telegram he received telling him of my birth
I would be 11 months old before he met me
The camera caught only the beginning
So many hours yet to smile
So much heartbreak when she died of cancer at 48
Fran Abrams has had poems published in numerous journals and anthologies and in three books– the full-length collection, I Rode the Second Wave: A Feminist Memoir, and two chapbooks, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, and Arranging Words. One of her poems has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Visit franabramspoetry.com.
