My grandmother’s jowls are now
mine. She was a good woman.
She bore my grandfather six
children, my mother being one
of them. She was a Van Ess from
Zuid Holland, a tall, handsome
people with big, fair-headed,
manes of white hair as I remember
as vs. my grandfather’s Groningen,
short, dark-haired, bald-headed
people. He was a boisterous person;
she was a quiet person. I got more
of my grandfather’s traits except
those little jowls I now see in
the mirror, which remind me
of a sweet, quiet woman who
came from tall, dignified Dutch
people. I wish I’d gotten the
big, fair-headed mane instead
of the jowls.