A Family Inclination

In 1935 at age three
I stood alone, except
for the giant Christmas tree
near the pulpit of our very,
very large Lutheran church,
and I recited loudly
this introduction
to the Sunday School’s program:
   I’m a little girl
   as high as a table.
   If you want me to speak,
   wait ’till I’m able.

Seeing Grandpa and Grandma Bonn
so pleased in the first pew, I decided
   on the spot
to add another poem, sang out:
   I eat my peas with honey.
   I’ve done so all my life.
   It makes the peas taste funny,
   but it keeps them on my knife.
And everyone smiled so brightly! I,
peaking early, experienced the top
performance of my entire life.

Even as late as 1994,
when I was stopped by an elderly
man outside the post office
in Montevideo, my childhood
hometown, I was reminded
of the earlier recitation. He asked,
   Are you Bert Bonn’s daughter?
and when I nodded yes,
he laughed, added,
   You was so good in that loud peas
   and honey poem!

Today, on my 85th
birthday, I’m still reciting
poetry─usually my own now─
and I want you to notice
that most of you have inherited
some love of invention,
perhaps from Grandpa and me.
I offer this, my ditty,
to thank you for that,
for humming along with us
these many years.