About Elaine H Leone

Grandy says it’s a disgrace

That she has such wrinkles in her face.

I looked up close and she let me touch

But I just see dents where she smiles so much.

Grandy just twinkles.  Her heart has no wrinkles.

The Carey kids like scary stuff.

In the game they play the most,

Lucie is the human being

And Lucas is the ghost.

Charlie and his cousins always have a blast

As soon as they meet on any street,

They start playiing Gotcha Last!

I’m a stick- in -the -mud  who is stuck in the mud

And I don’t want to go out and play.

I don’t want to talk or go for a walk

So just leave me alone 

For today.

Just for today.  OK?

He brings light with him

When he comes in and then

After he is gone

It gets quite dark again.

The salesman shook my Grandy’s hand,

Said, “WHAT a pleasure THIS is!”

Then said, “What’s your first name, Dear?”

And Grandy said, “It’s MRS.”

While I was finishing my burger

And looking at the pies,

And not paying attention,

My brother ate my fries.

In Grandad’s backyard garden,

He grows vegetables to eat

But Grandy’s corn and onions

Are growing on her feet.

(Mom says those onions

Are called bunions).

When my special, every-Thursday-antiquing f riend of 50 years passed, her dear children appeared on my doorstep bearing pieces we had found together on endless treasure hunts  and presented them to me.   “Doesn’t it make you SAD.”  someone asked, “to have these things?”  Oh, no!  On the contrary!  I recall with   great joy each  and every bush that we beat in New England to find EVERY one!  Anyway,  among the treasures was a carved wooden plaque of a whimsical bird unlike any we had ever seen.   Dot called it “The Dinkey Bird” and bought it immediately.   She referred to a well-loved children’s verse by Eugene Field of the same name.

When I inherited The Dinkey Bird, I added color to it, thinking it should be in a child’s room somewhere.   But I haven’t been able to part with it because I like to think that Dot Hartzog is waiting for me  someplace “where the dinkey bird is singing in the amfalula tree” and it is an  everyday sweet reminder of a rare and wonderful friendship.