THURSDAY

Thursday, 1924, Thor let fling his hammer:

The Hammonds, Mott and Esther, gave regular birth

To my baby sister. They had agreed to name her,

From some magazine of starlets, Jerry Lou. Grandma

Prepared a dinner -- roast beef with gravy. The platter

Clattered to the new-scrubbed floor: the baby fell

From the slimy hands of the doctor against a door.

Jerry Lou died two days after. Esther, mother,

Lay abed, time on her hands, each hour seemed an hour:

Eternity strolled around her room. The nurse,

An angel, held her hand, theologized, and read,

From Scripture, the Apocalypse. Both Jerry Lou and mother,

Time told before the twinkling, had far, O so far to go.