Brands by Mary Margaret Dougherty

There’s a 101 brand hanging on my wall My grandmother’s brand and her grandmother's before her Two women who outlived husbands and ran the ranch themselves. There’s a goose egg carved into the headstone of the family plot in the cemetery My grandfather then Dad used that one For me, a bar singed under. There’s a rafter 7 burned into wood above my sink My husband scorches Longhorn hide with electricity His father’s iron came from a fire. There’s a walking P of gold encircled with gilded rope on my mother’s third finger Her personal display of Grandfather’s cow id. And here I am amidst them wearing all the brands.

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