Lives of the Saints in Verse

Three Cheers for Jennifer Colander

Born May 1, 1859

          Jennifer ate black-eyed peas

          during the war.

In Philadelphia 1878 she heard the

          Marseillaise on a tin platter.

Jenny did not shed a tear when Guiteau

          burned Garfield.

She was too busy cutting leather

          and knitting stockings.

In 1898 Jenny invested in the rum trade but

          McKinley derailed that venture.

Salisbury steak during World War I

          and five years of

          psychoanalysis.

After which Jenny died a creaking flapper,

          two weeks before the birth of Dina Merrill

Three cheers for Jennifer Colander!