<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Litany </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><i class="">For all that is done and said.</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><i class="">We know their dream; enough</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><i class="">To know they are dreamed and are dead.</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><i class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> from Yeats’ “Easter, 1916”</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Enough to know.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">They are dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And are dead.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The litany in my head</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Utters their names</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">One by one. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Dead. Not dead.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The beginning. Kneel down</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">On the cold stone floor.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The stone of the heart recalls first</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Her name. Mary. The Grandmother, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The grandmother from Wales</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Whose voice always took me to the lilt </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Of Dylan Thomas.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Then the children: Marietta Walker, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">First child of the young bride. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Donald, after her husband,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Who worked in the mine.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Carrie. Bill. Sam. Norval. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The family grew, boys</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Following their father </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Into the coal-dark days.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The child Kenneth, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The only one never to reach adulthood, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Adored by my mother, Maggie May.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">(Maggie May, Margeret, Midge—</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Alll names worn by my mother.)</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And the youngest: Betty (Mary Elizabeth). </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Elbert. Lucy Florence. Robert. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Twelve children and never an angry word</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">From the parents from Wales, from Scotland.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">But the names go on. Chidren </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Of their children. Cousins. Brothers.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">My knees, on that ancient stone</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Known to my memory, have no feeling. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Only telling. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The names </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Come faster. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">They are hard to say. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And now, in silence, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The stone. My heart. My love.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Say it. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Enough to know.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And dead.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Fran Claggett </span></div><div class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><br class=""></span></div></body></html>