To Be or Not To Be
Connie Wright Swallow

Shakespeare, the famous bard
Would have done a spread-eagle
180 degree turn, if he had been
requested to put into prose,
to make sense,
of the contrast twixt
my -
aerobic fitness trainer,
marathon running,
power walking,
mountain climbing,
camping, hiking,
health food advocate,
daughter
and her -
horizontally challenged,
remote control reclining,
snail paced stepping,
fresh air phobic,
rotund burrower of bedding,
golden arches poster child,
mother.

Sir William would have shaken his head
and questioned with perplexity,
“Alas, fair maiden, this cannot be, why it
spins nature itself upon its ear.
So tell me true, and tary not
Whose womb didst thou cometh from, my dear?”

“That is the question,” she would smile,
requesting my attendance in our walk.
She, content to be my daughter, and I,
content with my role model.