When my mother was a young woman,
She decided to paint the heads
Of thousands of flathead pins.
A few hundred of this color,
A few thousand of that.

Then she would push thousands of these pins
Into blocks of styrofoam
To make beautiful paintings.
She did two of these,
One of the crucifixion,
The second of Jesus and Peter on the sea.

These hung in my home all of my childhood,
Until time eventually reduced the styrofoam
To dust.

In my mom's last few years
She painted rocks,
A step up from styrofoam.
I've kept one that she painted
Recalling one of her lost pin paintings.

Happy Mother's Day Mom.
You are loved and missed.