Remembering Mom: "Be Pleasant"

Mom in Swansboro, North Carolina, in 2012

Be Pleasant

“In this world, you must be oh so smart 

Or oh so pleasant.  For years I was smart.

I recommend pleasant.  You may quote me.”

(Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey by Mary Chase)

If you don’t walk around like you have got

The weight of the world on your back, people

Think you’re simple, Mom would say with a smile

Full of irony she would underline

With a deliberate shake of her head.

Those who carried water for grievances

They imagined to be as large as Atlas’s

And as consequential misunderstood

My mother’s readiness to laugh at jokes

She made at her own expense, the sunshine

In her hellos and how are yous, advice

To drop it, let go of the meaningless,

To cleave to blue skies full of light and hope,

To find something to do: from life, claim happiness. 

They missed the joy of mother love; nothing less.

Missing you, Mom, three years after your passing.  You were, are, and ever will be an angel.