I only know Dolly’s mother loved her and Dolly knew this
          because of the many-colored coat her mother made—
          sewn of flowers snipped from flour sacks, bright rags
          Dolly grew to love—I know this much
because every year, as trees put on red and gold tops,
        one girl would decide her favorite book was Dolly Parton’s
and during peer evaluation, pulling her diamond cross
          against its thin chain, this girl would finish reading her draft
          and sigh a sigh that signaled to the class the time to talk had come
so, jodhpurs still muddy, a girl who came straight from the stables,
and a girl who cried when I criticized her papers’ generalities 
          (“childhood is a time of protected innocence,”
          “children get to play outside all summer,”
          “all girls have a favorite doll”),
and, this seemed to happen each October, a girl whose mother had gazed
          from the same window M,W,F, at 11, too,
          having taken freshman comp in that same room,
and the one who hated to be stereotyped and started the club
          that got girls talking about new ways to demonstrate love,
and the one who, during orientation, must have bought her favorite t-shirt
          in every color, the college logo sealed over her heart and , writ large,
          the unofficial motto, “not a girls'” school with no men,
          but a women’s college with no boys,”
and the girl who got engaged at her high school graduation party,
          the girl who rarely spoke, who covered her mouth when she smiled,
and the girl from the Southside Virginia no-stop-light town
          who always reminded us her town had no stop light,
and even the girl who was never shy about saying she didn’t know
          what the other girls were talking about,
          she’d grown up someplace completely different,
said, it’s about having pride in who you are and where you come from
          and the professor wants to know if she stuck to her thesis
          and she stuck to her thesis and I wish I could
          sew I’d make myself a coat like that and I just love this book
and does she need to bring up that Bible story
and the Bible story is a bit confusing, I don’t think she cited her sources
          she left out quotation marks I think she means Dolly
          loves the coat but when she writes I loved the coat
          it sounds like her and I like that I think that’s okay
and I love this book and I think this is a great paper
          yeah I really like this paper
and I really love how she gets us to care about her
and I feel she has everything she needs
and I feel we know everything we need to know.