Measured child

Measured child    First thing he read in a newspaper was only a shape.  Taken from the backside, held by other hands.  The carpet floor was rather thin. Four feet measured the threadbare couch.  Two more the chair next door.  Paper and yarn in hand.  The third fretted about something fret worthy we suppose. Clouds would seem closer than the [...]

Read Full Post »

Sister

S i s t e r She remembers when milk stars were on fingertips.  when warm bread came ringing at the door.  when She was the taller of two. She said, here in my arms your weight will fit. your limbs in mine become olive trusses, said these are braided bridge these are rings on the cat [...]

Read Full Post »

Robert

Robert   His name was Robert.  Family called him Bob. He was the brother, the son, who couldn’t settle for the farm.  There just weren’t enough flavors that way, planted in the dirt. No ill regard ever spoken of you.  But you were just the one who couldn’t stay. A fine turned storm was not just inconvenience nor [...]

Read Full Post »

Finding freedom brothers

Finding freedom brothers Marineros en el mar, hay una regla usted viene ayudar alguien. Pero ese día ellos no vinieron. Until that day I jumped into the water and left my home. Left my best friend. Left everything. Everything, sadness was one drop of my heart, and I walked into the sea. One could hardly [...]

Read Full Post »

Pocket guide

P o c k e t g u i d e i. Small steps. You know, those at both ends of the coin. She stands waving a few steps outside her kitchen door. Vigilant. Woven into that basket named grandmother. Some voice of me these decades later still resists saying the perfect words, lest in [...]

Read Full Post »

Sister lost

Sister lost You called my name before my voice broke from dawn, entered day. Your nile dark braid of hair, a sister’s rope to pull me from the river flood. Tall yet near. Your hand a cradled nest. That photograph. My eyes found yours. I’m sure they did. No milky sky could confuse. No olive [...]

Read Full Post »

You asked

    read write prompt #93 – Make it a whopper by Deb Scott This week, tell a lie.  Make it big or make it small.  Take some seed from that and see what poem comes.  Not so easy for me (or too easy?), and this was actually the third poem that I finally settled [...]

Read Full Post »

Five days

For my mother, Virginia 1911-2005   Five days     Climbing high in memory’s eye, this raptor’s peak nine decades and one, woven nest of gathered thread.   Five days, one doctor said. Only his single voice on the telephone. And I understand how reason arrives. She’s coming home.   Like valley snow, plum blossom [...]

Read Full Post »

Grandmother’s thumbs

For Janet   Grandmother’s thumbs   Redeemer of a two-toed cat.  Kitten so slight so lost, would have starved except she dared him kernel by kernel of corn out from behind a leaf, into her home, into bright hands, welcome gaze.   A little red wagon, you know the kind, that I spied short before [...]

Read Full Post »

Burnished

Burnished   I am my mother’s eyes. I am my father’s hair.   Borne of cold maple and sweet hot humid southern stone.   My grandmother’s gingham, a cat beside the kitchen sink. A jar of nails unbent in my great uncle’s backyard shed.   Smooth old paint, three layers deep  upon a farm bred [...]

Read Full Post »