My Destiny
Phyllis Wax
Poetry, design by CJ Muchhala
$125
Resist as I might I could not divert fate -
my mother's demise when I was only 6,
my Eddie's, sweet angel, at 4, then Willie,
my favorite, next Tad in the White House.
And, of course, the tragedy of Mr. Lincoln.
From that loss I could not recover.
I took to my bed for forty days, mourned him
the rest of my life, seventeen long years.
Politics-my childhood home was steeped in it.
My father, Robert Todd: councilman, magistrate,
sheriff, assemblyman, finally senator in Kentucky.
Issues, strategy, the personalities-
I loved it all. I knew from the start
I couldn't be president, but
resolved to love only a man who could,
to assist destiny in any way possible. This Todd
would live in the White House.
Fate took me there
with heartache all along the way
and anguish ever after.
Artist Statement
Their bond was so strong that I wanted Abraham Lincoln to hover over this poem about Mary Lincoln. CJ Muchhala made him materialize.
About the Artist
Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Among the anthologies and journals in which her poetry has appeared are: Rhino, The Widows’ Handbook, Birdsong, Spillway, Peacock Journal, Surreal Poetics, Naugatuck River Review, New Verse News, Portside, Written in Arlington. She has read in coffee houses, bars, libraries and on the radio.
Phyllis’s poems have been exhibited with art quilts and weavings in a variety of Wisconsin venues as part of poet/fiber artist collaborations. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as the Best of the Net and Bettering American Poetry anthologies.