Eternal Triangle

At first, she used to say, "My mother-in-law."
Placing the accent on the last, cold word,
As if, in such a forced affair, she saw
A matter, legal but a trifle absurd.
During the second year, it got to be
"Dick's mother." After little Dick was born,
It turned to "Grandma Martin." Gradually,
That same, once strange relationship was shorn
Of every small antagonism; at last,
Became a peaceful, kind, familiar thing
Living renewal of my own dead past
A safeguard against all old age might bring
 And when, to-day; she said-"Dick's-mother-and-mine,"
 She set upon the words love's seal and sign.

VIOLET ALLEYN STOREY.