May Day

when my sisters and I were kids we made baskets of colorful woven paper and filled them with flowers and love notes. We delivered these to the doors of neighbors who also happened to be people we adored...our grandparents, Mrs. Tatro, the Kings-who lived on The Corner, though it really was an elbow in the road that we were told to always be careful when coming 'round. On bicycles it was a rush, later driving cars it was called blind and we knew what this meant- we had a blind Aunt Lily, she needed help finding her way sometimes, but she always knew how tall we were becoming by the way she felt of us. She'd trace her soft hands over our faces to find smiles and to know just how big we'd become. Our Uncle Rolly would whistle when she got to the top of our heads and hand us each a quarter. Uncle Sammy would hear the whistle and come running-his shaking hands open for change.

xo