inspiring woman, she enlivened my
childhood with her big family,
adventurous spirit, and new age
ideas before it was the
new age – she was post
Vatican II, now journeys past
Catholicism, a lively grandma who
wrote a book about her Baltimore
girlhood, first communion outfit
featured frilly on the cover
Martin Timentwa, Born 1912, Monse,
Okanogan, Died October 1954, Monse,
Okanogan, age 42, spouse Jeanette
Narcisse, 11 Children; Loretta Ann
(the eighth) married Sonny Bigwolf,
had four children: Sonny Eveningstar,
Frank Buckskin, Alberta Rose,
and April J. – family saga of
a red-robed altar boy, fumbling
through a white girl’s wedding
vacations sublime, Pacific coast and
London (twice) – he mapped our
course, eating cheap in Chinatown,
the best shows, evening strolls
back to Piccadilly Circus ‘cross
the Thames – unlikely romance,
still it sprouted, then grew, but
stunted, each absorbed in cultivating
separate gardens – mine still gifted
with his maple (Golden Moon)
extroverted ex boss, freckled phenom
powermonger easier to handle from
the nonwaking side of life –
in dreamtime I transformed her,
I’m sure that’s her, that skinny
animated bird with wedgeshaped
head, orange, pink, and fluffy
feathers at the center of attention –
curly cartoon action figure
but wearing full length mink
claim the pain the shame
a sundae of confusion ice
cream with hot fudge substances
ladled liberally all that and
happy mother’s day the
cherry on top of 26 years
of difficult and just desserts
yum yum, cookie man, prison
man, moose on the loose,
he loves his mother too
I screwed up, I abdicated
my authority, I forgot who
was boss and my crew
mutinied, leaving me alone
to finish dishes after breakfast –
this girl, a woodland creature,
stepped forward like a fawn
from the shadows of her gloom
and helped me finish dishes,
not a word between us
emotionally like the weather of
this planet, ranging from exuberant
sunshine to tempestuous storms;
physically made more completely
human by her affinity for four leggeds;
spiritually, curiously blind at times
to the degree of her enlightenment –
both loved and loving, imagine
her at rest in contemplation
lady of the lake