Dressed in Easter finery, my cousins and I
rode the Swan Boats.

My little patent leather pocketbook,
holding a dollar,
fell into the pond.

As it floated
away, the young boat pedaler
took a long pole and rescued it.

Back at our grandmothers’,
I hung my dollar
out to dry.

Marcia M. Walker was born in Boston in 1946 and grew up in Brookline. She is married and is the mother of two sons, with one grandchild.