Where on Earth

August 24, 1980

Not everyone in his family had died, but there were only four siblings left the morning Sheldon Rising came, with tomatoes from his garden that were even more beautiful than the ones he'd brought us the summer before. We invited him in for coffee but he told us he couldn't stay, stood there at the door for just a minute. Such a frail, gentle man, with amazing blue eyes. Then he drove off in his old pickup. I went straight to the kitchen and ate two big tomatoes, standing over the sink. It was heaven, with the red juice squirting around my mouth. A few drops fell on my dress with its speckled bird's-egg print. Where on earth did I get such material for a dress? It must have been that hole-in-the-wall yardage shop that closed after three weeks.

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.