I. 

I hid them like something 
precious—saffron, caviar—
then wrapped in snowflake tissue, 
trussed with curled ribbon, 

Dad’s yearly 
gifts for Mother’s 
Christmas stocking: 
Paquin’s jarred hand cream, 
Tussey deodorant smelling 
like cinnamon, 
Revlon Oh! So Red! lipstick, 
a palm-sized box 
of Russell Stover chocolates. 


II. 

Soon after Mother pierced 
her ears in her middle years 
her stocking held 
a silver-foiled box 
of cultured pearl studs 
she asked for and wore 
until her ear holes closed, 

though she always decked 
dresses with the pearl 
necklace my father 
bought for their wedding. 

Wanting to change the 
worn cord, secure a catch 
her palsied hands might 
manage, I rescue the flimsy 
strand, search a Philly 
restoration for her birthday. 


III. 

The jeweler lifts the 
necklace from its plush box, 
tooths the beads, whispers 
“Synthetic—do you still 
want to spend the money?” 
Her face signals kind 
restraint. I nod, wondering, 
even, if they might 
bleach the yellowed plastic? 

I’m longing, though she never 
did, for a posher thing, 
labor turned to luxury: 
oyster white pearls, 
formed from sandy accretion, 
shining globes hatched as 
protection, adaptation. 
Her marrying down 
for seven happy decades. 

This—this gritty, gleaming 
circle I still ache 
to nestle in my mother’s 
felt stocking, watch her 
raise their cold moon 
luster to light 
the darkness 
her final Christmas Eve. 

VA Smith

is an award-winning, retired teaching professor of English at Penn State and founder of Chancellor Writing Services. She’s dropped poetry into dozens of literary journals and anthologies, among them: Blue Lake Review, Southern Review, Gyroscope Review, and Oyster River Pages. Kelsay Books published her first poetry collection, Biking Through the Stone Age, in May 2022. Her second collection, American Daughters, also published by Kelsay, will appear in January 2023. She is at work on a third collection entitled Elsewhere, walking and biking, serving as a home chef/caterer, and loving on her friends, family, and dog.

Author’s website: www.vasmithpoetry.com