Missing Mom

Memories, photographic
black and white snapshots
still sharp fifty years later:

Mom,
sprawled on an Adirondack chair
after a day of gardening,
chasing five year old me up climbing oaks,
making lemonade and finger sandwiches for lunch.

Mom,
walking hand in hand with me
from the principal's office;
suspended
because I'd told a teacher she'd spelled
a word wrong.
Mom took me for ice cream.

Years later:
I found out Mom
was terrified of climbing trees,
didn't care for lemonade,
I found out my brother
had been in trouble
for telling the same teacher she couldn't spell
the exact same word.

Mom--ten plus years gone,

memory coloring
ripple-edged,1960s pictures
vivid, alive,
giving the positive
of turning memoric negatives
into framed days.