Line of Women

I come from a long line of women.

They matched outfits with their men - and fed their men - and loved their men

and many of them

lost their men –

some of them many times over .

They smiled as they brought each successive woman into this world

and they cried as they sent each successive woman out of this world

and they held the hands of their daughters on their deathbeds

and they remembered their mothers on their deathbeds

and they thought of their men -

the ones they had loved

and the ones they had lost

and the ones who had never come back

and they dreamed of reunions

as they each fell asleep

in the long line of women I come from.