My mother’s mother was Irish

 (I never knew her), and I know

 we are given to excess

 of every kind.  But my other side

 is Puritan, and what a combination!

 My new friend told me she wants

 to get over “the way I am,”

 though she has never really shown

 me how that is.  She of the book

 I am reading has gone to extremes

 to remake herself, she who seems

 to the world to be full of joy.

 Day to day we repair the mud-dabbed

 face of where we dwell, buzz around

 too quickly to be caught out.

— Carol Hamilton 

Honorable Mention, EOL Poetry Contest 2011-2012