Mothers Day, 1958
Jody Serey 1950 (St. Paul, Minnesota)
she waited until May to wear her pride
the linen suit with the pleats that fanned
against the prize,
the late-life child, the one to change the world
the daughters had given her the candy before church;
the flowers that she wore were pink, because
her mother was alive
the scent of starch, and the perfume
he’d bought at Christmas, the kind she’d
worn when they were young
her alto pushed against the notes
of hymns she sang without the book,
her voice bright with certainty
in September driving home
from the little cemetery, she said
I was a fool to be so happy
Font size:
Submitted by jodyserey on May 24, 2021
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 31 sec read
- 10 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXX XXX XAX XXB XAB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 557 |
Words | 104 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Mothers Day, 1958" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/100915/mothers-day,-1958>.
Discuss the poem Mothers Day, 1958 with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In