Turtle

My mother told me

in the dying conversations

that her mother

my grandmother

set a pretty table.

Grandmother Christie had

few worldly treasures excepting

a crystal sugar bowl with creamer

and a turtle butter mold.

A Turtle Butter Mold

into which she gently poured

the soul of the granddaughter

she never held.

Turtles come to me.

My first made by Michael

in nursery school.

The collection started then

continues now...

My grandmother

set her table before me,

a table of sugar

rising cream

and

sweet butter.

The Turtle Woman

upon whose back

my world was created

Lives...

Christie Smith Stephens

December 8, 1997, copyright.