(for Donna and Lauren and Rosie)

We love the boys, too,
but these three generations
of Just girls have my heart,

my sister who made me an aunt
on my 29th birthday, then my niece
who made me a great aunt

(You’ve always been a great aunt,
Aunt Jan, she loyally told me)
with Henry, about to be 2,

and now with Rosie, who at 2
months makes eye contact and
laughs and holds up her head

with surprising strength for
one so fresh out of the egg.
As the family matriarch

floated off into mystery
on the winter solstice, our
newest girl was still baking

inside her mama. Sitting
now with Just these three,
I cannot help but be amazed

by the going on-ness of it all.
“Every generation improves
the breed,” our long-gone

grandpa used to say,
and these three are living
proof of that. I hope that he

and the other ancestors—
them’s what made us—
drop in now and then

for visits, that they are
delighted by what they
started and how it so

blessedly continues.