Name and Claim

by Susan Shea

My beloved daughter calls me
The Mamalula
flattering my need to be
the one and only of a kind
capable of lifting heavy objects
over my head, she tries to convince me
that her favorite author Tolkien
would have should have put me
in his timeless masterpiece
if only he had known me

but I can only bumble-hobbit
through her towering journeys

small as I am, I try to travel,
with her healing elves and resurrectors,
keep up with the men and beasts
live up to a name and feats
just for her I’ll do my best to go
beyond the narrowness of death