<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 22px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);">When Dolly Doesn’t Walk in the Door</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I wish she would. I wish she’d breeze in</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">with her big white smile and her big blonde hair</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and her sing song voice saying, “Hi, y’all.” </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I wish she’d come over and sit at the counter</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">so I could serve her a tall glass of iced tea </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">or a cool lemonade. Serve her stories of times </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">when her songs met me in dark hours</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">or lonely hallways, times when I sang </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Coat of Many Colors,” but heard her voice</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">instead of mine. Times when I sang about</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">how wildflowers don’t care where they grow,</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">somehow feeling so seen by her as a wildflower. </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I would serve her stories of the children </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I used to work with who lived in a small, dirty house </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">far from town with an angry dad and an earnest </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mom, and how they got books in the mail every month </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">from Dolly’s book club, how those kids and I would sit </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on the old plaid couch and read aloud for hours.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I would want to serve her huge platters of gratefulness</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">for showing a nation what generosity looks like,</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">for being a role model for kindness. But I bet Dolly</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wouldn’t want a huge platter. My guess is she’d want </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a few honest words, so I would say, </span><em style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);">Thank you,</em><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and she would probably smile and do that shrug </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">she does. Then we’d walk out to the porch </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and sit in the shade and watch as the grass in the field </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">tells stories about the shape of the wind. </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was never going to happen, this meeting, </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">but now that Dolly’s gone, I walk outside</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">with a burgeoning bouquet of many-petalled thank yous </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and toss them into the air. I imagine the wind </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">taking them to her, a colorful, fanciful folly. </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I imagine a world where we’re all as generous, </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">as loving, as impossible yet possible as Dolly.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</span></body></html>