To Bonnie Jean Mickelson Hunsaker - Cowgirl, Adventurer, Wonder Woman, Mom

Here's to Mom

by Hal Swift


Here's to Mom for teaching me
the joy there is in reading.
For showing me a hundred skills
she knew that I'd be needing.

Here's to Mom for loving me,
although I often blundered.
For teaching me what courage is...
for laughing when it thundered.

Here's to Mom for helping me...
or not, if she felt she shouldn't.
For praising me when I did well,
and also when I couldn't.

Here's to Mom for showing me
Life's good, and how to know it.
For teaching me what real love is,
and helping me to show it.

Here's to Mom for all the years
devoted to my knowing
the way to find the joy in life,
wherever I'd be going.

Here's to you, Mom, from the son
you bore that rainy September*,
for all the ways you showed your love...
and know that I remember.




*original text: "cold December"