On Mamar's wedding day she weighed exactly 95 lbs.
She was also almost exactly 18 years old.
Today she's almost exactly 75 years old
and weighs exactly as much as I did in middle school.

I couldn't ever pull off that yellow bikini I saw her wearing in that photo from Atlantic Beach
Pop-Pop still keeps that photo in his wallet,
that and another one were she's blonde,
before the countless dye jobs through the decades

and the amber wig she hides under now.
it's a similar color to Marilyn's hair
before it fell shades of chalk

but we don't talk about that

and if you can't talk about hair color

you certainly can't mention the cancer

that drained its vibrance from the inside out.

although

we can admire the way those plastic crystals decorating her top sparkle under those fluorescent hospital lights and gracefully mask the broken IV port.