Deede

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Deede....a poem by Thomas Dunphy 2000

    As time goes, very little of mine
    was spent in Oklahoma...
    but I remember the long
    comfortable roads
    and people
    much like my friend, Deede.
    I can see in her deep blue
    eyes the happy dance of Cherokee
    & other tribes at POWWOWS along the fine stretching
    plains of the wonderful land
    named Oklahoma.
    I can see Deede with her
    friends and family there,
    like my old friend, Mrs. Magruder,
    who was from Oklahoma, too,
    and one of my best friends
    when I was a kid in East Los Angeles.
    I can see the rough and gentle
    qualities in her being
    like one who would have marveled
    & enjoyed a ride on a Wells Fargo
    coach in times past yet
    still happily with us
    with her: in her carriage, in her face sculpted like
    the windswept plains
    on some of their finest summer days in Oklahoma.
    I wish I had longer memories
    of Oklahoma as in the musical:
    but some people carry the
    kindness & beauty & intrigue
    of the place that nurtured
    their essence---
    and this marvelous pattern
    of clouds, Indians & pioneers
    built on the friendship of time
    during the formation of Oklahoma
    God has put into my life
    in the depth of Deede's friendship
    which is a great joy to me
    as I enjoy my being in 2,000
    and sit comfortable in a McDonald's with Deede,
    Dorothy, Mary and have our second cup of senior coffee
    with a hot piece of apple pie
    which she has filled with her
    Oklahoma spark
    which I will always love
    .

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