The modest piece possessed, like her, a frugal grace Perhaps it was an uncle’s gift a sweet sixteen its seat, petite, poised on Slim aluminum legs holding her gaze in the looking glass It was here she’d primp frosted gloss and ironed hair for a date with my dad Here, she affixed the veil to her black beehive. Long, false eyelashes blinking into her future Soon, she’d allow her little girls to fancy themselves mommies puckering, playing and press-on nails Then, she moussed her perm a spritz of Gloria Vanderbilt before my college graduation Later, she put on readers to see the small print on the box of Revlon dye And did she reflect on her reflection after taking her niece to get an abortion when no one else would go? Eventually, two Styrofoam heads sat with silent eyes to keep her wigs in shape It was here she penciled in her eyebrows Autumn Brown when the chemo took them away And when it was time I sat on that seat wobbling on uneven legs To clean out the bobby pins and lipsticks, the earrings and rosary beads I don’t have the space for that kind of piece I quick flick mascara and Smooth on chapstick in the car my son singing from his booster seat So, it was there, on the sidewalk where I placed the vanity just in time for its mirror To watch the hot orange sunset cool to its nighttime blue ***