My Mother Had a Lazy Eye

My mother had a lazy eye 

Down the long dirt driveway 

She looked, lingering 

At the mailbox by the prairie road  

For a letter to arrive, 

A word to come from another world - 

Her uniformed older brother  

In combat fatigues  

Overseas, over there  

Her mother, Clara, had buried 

Her first husband and infants  

South of the border 

She soldiered on, 

Married a pint of a man  

Named Harry, 

Took in boarders  

In their farmhouse 

The ‘Tuckey Hilton’ 

Strange men knocked at the door 

With medals on their chests 

Smiles were missing  

As they shrugged at questions 

Heads silently bowing; 

My mother was there, 

Present, but looking away