Rita at 60

Darby Riley

July 6, 2025

slim and civilized,

can make even cold lima beans

taste good:

likes to celebrate

decorate

dress up like a witch.

Good friend:

she’ll place her 7 foot

cardboard cutout of 

Albert Einstein next

to your hospital bed

to scare the doctors

and nurses at 3 a.m.


Good neighbor:

she’ll call you

from the Farmer’s Market

to get what you need. 

Good lady:

a Golden Rule

planet-saver

community builder

lover of art and culture

devoted to her husband

and to all dogs and cats.

Slim, civilized

in a bright colored outfit 

with matching shoes.

Darby Riley is a lawyer and Sierra Club volunteer in San Antonio.  He has hosted a monthly poetry writing workshop since 1992.  His poems have been published in several anthologies, including Lone Star Poetry, and several local publications, including the San Antonio Express-News, La Voz de Esperanza, and Voices de la Luna.

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A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Pediatrician

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Stavros:  A Good Shepherd