Each was marked
Same strange birthmark
As if tattooed in the womb
A sign, rune-like, matching
No known language
Three girls named Penny
Born the same day
In different countries
Unknown to each other
Until the internet
Until Google searches
Each trying to find meaning
Finding, instead, each other
But no answer, until
A photo, same mark
On older skin, with
A message cautioning
“Tell no one”

In each generation
Three are chosen
Your gift will manifest
When you come of age
Trust you are not going mad
I will know and tell you
How to come to us

And in the fullness of time
So it was they joined
That sisterhood, transformed

Bob Wertzler is retired from almost twenty years in the mental health field in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist”, seems to fit. In 2006 he retired to move to Western North Carolina to help and become primary care giver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was work at various times as a soldier (US Army 1967-70), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, and other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip its been.”