Moving Back
Born in Iowa in 1880, Frances Toyne tried not to fixate on that slippery knot of early memories. Tragedy prompted her removal across the country to a private orphanage before the age of reason. There, she mastered the fine art of how to be a real lady, both independent and useful, moving whenever opportunity or imaginary friends could give her a lift.
These poems and stories, like a lock of her mother’s hair pinned to the inside of her bodice, allowed Toyne to barter. Empowered with a remarkable gift of play, she ran the gauntlet through the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, Jazz, and wars between worlds and generations.
Now on the other side, hollering with cupped hands, she invites us to make it through our modern-day chaos and dawning of the age of Mars, telling us that the fire is real, but we don’t have to remember a bloody password to enjoy it. Maybe, if we remove our earbuds, we will hear her.
Moving Back: Poems & Stories
by Frances Toyne
edited by Christine Friesel
paperback ▪︎ 106 pages ▪︎ non-fiction
ISBN 978-1736208731
Published: August 2021
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excerpt:
Now I’ve often found Dear, true friends will abound Dear,
If one is but faithful nor tried to deceive,
Oft’ times it is quite wise, if friends tell you white lies,
And you can’t believe them. Why just Make-Believe.
CHORUS:
Make-Believe they are truthful—‘twill help a lot,
Make-Believe they’re the real thing—though they are not,
Yet always remember—I love but you,
In this wonderful garden, where Make-Believe grew.