She wears a skirt fashioned from a dilapidated tea towel
commemorating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
She delights in the natural world around her -
the flora and the fauna.
SUMMER, THE MEADOW LARK BEGINS TO SING
Sixty-seven years, oh Lord, to look at the clouds,
the trees in deep, moist summer,
daisies and morning glories
opening every morning
their small, ecstatic faces -
Or maybe I should just say
how wish I had a voice
like the meadowlark's,
sweet, clear, and reliably
slurring all day long
from the fencepost, or the long grass
where it lives
in a tiny but adequate grass hut
beside the mullein and the everlasting,
the faint-pink roses
that have never been improved, but come to bud
then open like little soft sighs
under the meadowlark's whistle, its breath-praise,
its thrill-song, its anthem, its thanks, its
alleluia. Alleluia, oh Lord.
Mary Oliver