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My Mother’s Song
by Patti Tana


We tied the line
                between strong trees
                                clear across the yard

I gave her pins
                one by one
                                as she gave me her song


Clothes caught the song
                billowed
                                and snapped against the sky

Leaves rustled the song
                and birds
                                tossed it like a bouquet

Now I sing a song
                a tall tree song
                                soft blue memory

wrapped in the clothes
                she washed and smoothed
                                and draped in the sky for me

First published: Ask the Dreamer Where Night Begins: Poems & Postscripts (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1986) by Patti Tana

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