Henrietta Tweedy 1886-1907

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From the book: Voices from Clark Cemetery

Henrietta Tweedy

1886 – 1907

I was always taught that good news puts fat on the bones.
And I was taught by my strict Christian father
That before honor comes true humility.
I remember picking the Valencia’s one summer afternoon
And hearing him say
That the winners in life are the givers,
And that a foolish man always despises his mother.
And after services on Sundays,
I can still remember all of us congregated
In the sparse dining room
There on California Street,
Eating mother’s delectable starchy dinners
With my father in white starched shirt
Saying the “grace” before meals,
And ending the prayer, saying:
“A soothing tongue is a tree of life.”
I loved life and I loved God.
And that is all I can say
Here in my lonely grave.
Except,
Roscoe Settle was a thief.
He was the thief of my heart and of my soul.
He was the only one for me.
And I was the only one for him
And that’s the God’s honest truth.
We met on a Thursday evening at dusk in 1904
And his lips found my lips
His blue gentle eyes healed my spiritual blindness
Like Christ by the well
When he met her,
The thirsty woman from Samaria.
And I saw him on the road to Montebello Heights that long ago day
And little did I know it then,
That would be the last time
I was to see Roscoe Settle alive.
Pray for me all kindred souls of the day.
Pray for me as I set loose the atoms
Of a million milliseconds of human time.
Life demands nothing from us
Except,
To die.
It is the ultimate act of humility.
It is the ultimate act of final humanity.
And I am truly honored now
As the worms greedily gnaw
Upon the fat of my bones.

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