45th High School Reunion
- 45th High School Reunion
It doesn't matter who's gearing up to runfor office in Maine or who has three grandkidsand just retired from being a dentist a lawyera hospital bookkeeper or if Maureen still drinks;what matters
is that Tippy McHenry's father, sitting alonein the St. Claire Nursing Home day roomafter lunch, has a clean blanket over his knees,his mind's one window letting a draft in now,and that the early November light
still makes it through the torn shadeto lay its frail and dutiful beam acrossthe ugly linoleum. It matters that Tippy made surethe family Steinway went with him,and that she’s asked his favorite nurse
to let him stay there after the trays are cleared;and that his hands, although these daysthey shake a bit like stippled leaves whose timehas almost come, still know more or lesswhat to do. [End Page 51]
Frannie Lindsay’s fourth volume of poetry, Our Vanishing, was selected as the winner of the 2012 Benjamin Saltman Award and is forthcoming in 2014 from Red Hen Press. Her other titles are Mayweed (Washington Prize 2010; The Word Works); Lamb (Perugia Prize; Perugia Press 2006;) and Where She Always Was (May Swenson Award 2004; Utah State University Press). She is widely published and has held fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also received several Pushcart nominations. She is a classical pianist as well.
