Alanna C. Burke

Editing

During the business women’s lunch, colleagues pay tribute to their mothers by recounting advice received. Follow your dreams, Persevere, Do unto others. . . . Now it’s my turn.

Suddenly I’m three years old. On TV, Big Brother Bob Emory stands before a huge portrait of Eisenhower and exhorts the kiddies at home to join the studio audience in lifting a glass of milk to toast the President. “Hail to the Chief” plays. In our home, mother and child turn their backs and drop their pants to hail the chief.

“My mother encouraged me to express myself,” I say.

sit stay down come off heel no
my mind
fails to obey