Because Flipping Through a Photo Album for Black History Month Is More Fun Than Going to a Lecture

Cracking up at the second picture....that's my family. My mom is in all the pictures.

Getting Through July

My mom, Elaine Marie Richardson, pictured above, died four years ago in July. I thought that I would be better able to deal with her death by now but no such luck. Anyway, I've been reading Kimiko Hahn's The Unbearable Heart which is bringing some relief. Here's one of the poems from that collection:

Forecast

Since mother's death the ceiling settles
close to the trees, the buds,
a texture of red haze over the hills along the parkway.
Now mist. Now a cloud burst.
Even without sun the cherries lining the river
in one night it seems, blossom.
How they can I do not know.

--copyright 1995 by Kimiko Hahn