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Happiness -- Wesley McNair

(Poem #84)Happiness
 Why, Dot asks, stuck in the back
 seat of her sister's two-door, her freckled hand
 feeling the roof for the right spot
 to pull her wide self up onto her left,
 the unarthritic, ankle—why 
 does her sister, coaching outside on her cane,
 have to make her laugh so, she flops 
 back just as she was, though now
 looking wistfully out through the restaurant
 reflected in her back window, she seems bigger,
 and couldn't possibly mean we should go
 ahead in without her, she'll be all right, and so
 when you finally place the pillow behind her back 
 and lift her right out into the sunshine, 
 all four of us are happy, none more 
 than she, who straightens the blossoms 
 on her blouse, says how nice it is to get out 
 once in a while, and then goes in to eat
 with the greatest delicacy (oh 
 I could never finish all that) and aplomb 
 the complete roast beef dinner with apple crisp
 and ice cream, just a small scoop.
-- Wesley McNair

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