ELIZABETH

Unknown artist

ELIZABETH

they say, had the sight

my little great-grandmother

wild hair tamed down

no-nonsense black dress

glaring, daring the artist

to touch her soul.

They say Elizabeth's hair

was black as a new moon night

that she was a quiet woman

married to a carpenter

that she had four, quiet

round-cheeked children

that she died young, and

I wonder if she prayed

her rosary for the sight

or was it to escape those dark angels

begging, always begging, her to look?

- mimi