This is for my aunt, Catharine Seybold, my mother's oldest sister. I am now the last Catharine Seybold in the line, after my grandmother and aunt. I never knew my grandmother, but I carry her name and genes. My aunt counted on my mother to pass on the name. So here I am. I write in name and memory of both of them. I write with love of language. I write remembering Aunt Catharine's wanting the "best translation" of the Bible for her bookshelf. A connector between us. She rarely (probably never) went to church.
One Christmas
Her present to each of us
Was the recently-edited
Chicago Manual of Style,
I don’t remember
Which edition.
Still
She and a colleague
Were the authors (editors?).
When she left The Press
She wanted to hear
From me
The best Bible translation
To keep
On the bookshelf
In her retirement community.
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