STATUS: SOVEREIGN & UN-ENCUMBERED
HELD IN TRUST FOR THE LINEAL HEIRS // AD INFINITUM
INSCRIPTION: BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.
BALANCE DUE: ZERO.
And resting on a pedestal of hand-carved Wisconsin greenstone beside the garden gate...
Polished until the solid platinum band and diamond setting gleamed beneath the morning sun...
Was That Very Six-Carat Wedding Ring I Had Left on the Bed in Pacific Heights on That Cold October Night.
Its platinum band encased in clear crystal resin, a bronze plaque mounted across the pedestal reading:
WHILE MY BILLIONAIRE HUSBAND KNEELT BEFORE HIS MISTRESS WITH A $4 MILLION RING I WAS BLEEDING ON THE FLOOR.
A MOTHER'S UNYIELDING VALOR RAISED THE BEDROCK OF THE REPUBLIC.
BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.
A pair of white-tailed sea hawks broke from the high canopy of the northern pines along the shore, circling high on the thermal updrafts above the water, their broad wings catching the sun as they banked clean, deep, and free across the limitless blue American sky.
