My Mother Requests “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
played at her funeral. Only that song sung,
nothing more.
God put us here to have fun!
So we dressed you in a lemon drop
top from Mexico, una túnica solamente.
Placed a silvery jeweled tiara on your flaxen
hair ~ put sequined ruby slippers
on your feet ~played lullabies to a land
we had heard of and dared to dream. We wished
upon stars ~ hoped you’d wake up where there are
no sorrows, no tears, only bluebirds flying.
Your troubles melted high above
the chimney tops ~ beyond the rainbow
where the clouds are far behind you.
(In Honor of my Mother ~ Jean Addington Adams ~ June 13, 2010)
11 thoughts on "My Mother Requests “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”"
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Good images; excellent elegy poem.
thank you Stephanie
Debbie – Great account of the story I heard! I love how you made it so musical, yet true and strange at the same time. Glad you finally dipped your toes into the lexpomo waters!
Thanks Sylvia ~ I hope people realize it is non-fictive.
What a gift your mother left you all. I sang “Happy Trails” to the kids when I changed their diapers, but they won’t remember that. I love your poem.
Thanks Gaby ~ I have many more ‘mother’ stories. Bruce has heard several of them.
It was worth waiting for. And true to form you only let out work that has had its innards fully vetted. Just kidding. Your mother was indeed a singular personality and I wish I had known her. Although there was much about my mother that reminds me of the stories you tell of that remarkable person.
Thanks Bruce ~ Yes. Both mothers were strong, determined women it seems to me.
” lemon drop/top”, “silvery jeweled tiara” – great sounds! Beautiful tribute to a one-of-a-kind mom! What a send-off! So glad you wrote about it!
Thanks Kathleen – we never stop grieving – writing about her helps some.
I would have loved to have known her … wonderful tribute.