Looking Like a Thousand Bucks

My mother was an only child. When my maternal grandmother died, she left my mother an inheritance that was substantial. Between my father’s savvy investing and saving, my mother’s frugality, and the inheritance, my mother didn’t have to worry financially. She was generous and always sent money on birthdays and at Christmas (and sometimes just for the heck of it). Her estate is now finally (almost) settled. She named me and my sisters as beneficiaries on all her savings and investments. If I could, I’d trade every penny to have her back.

An inheritance received
Bound with tears and grief
Hands open
Let fall the loss of time

Money
Cannot replace
All that is missing
A mother’s value or
Love or touch or voice or smile

Fold crisp bills
Clinking coins heavy in my hands
What value placed on
Life
Now I cry ugly
Looking like a thousand bucks

This poem is not free verse. It is a French form called Descort. It is a form that is intentional in the variability of the lines and stanzas. There is no end rhyme, no refrains. It avoids meter, line lengths and syllable counts that are the same within stanzas and between stanzas. This form is actually harder than you’d think…

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