Daily tea habit
a surge of grapefruit caffeine
is my best defense
Grapefruit Tea Habit
When She Comes Home
we stand upstairs in
her old bedroom watching deer
graze in the forest
empty nest feelings
come rushing strong when she’s here
happy tear visits
my youngest daughter
home with her forever love ~
a new family
Visit
extra excitement
this time on their visit home
a growing secret……
The Muse
folks raise eyebrows at
kids with imaginary friends
holding full conversations
in complete worlds they
never see
but oh,
that kid with the
imaginary friend?
yeah, that one’ll be
a writer, and and that’s
the muse setting the
stage for all the stories
all the poems
all the books
all these memories
this journey that
fuels the pen
Lines
it messes with my
mind and heart, these
Titanic exhibits like
the one in Atlanta,
the Immersive
Experience
(no pun intended,
I’m sure, but I’d
have chosen a
different name)
I learned about the
Titanic as a child when
an elderly couple in
our church were
on the next boat out
late for their honeymoon
on the Titanic ~
the Testers, Mr. and Mrs.,
lived because they were
late, and for all the
cussing I might have
muttered missing my boat,
I’d have learned a
thing or two about
what it means to
let things go
and move on
I can’t imagine the terror
inside the hearts on
those lifeboats
all the loved ones
watching their own
sink to their deaths
in freezing darkness
as they rowed on
I wonder if F. Scott
Fitzgerald started
at the end of Gatsby
and then went to the
beginning to start
again
so we beat on
boats against the current
borne back
ceaselessly into
the past
which is why I
began taking photos
of snippets of
lines in the exhibit
wondering what
poems might
emerge, turning the
grief back to joy
The Lunch Tickets
we had a third grade
bully who kicked our
shins with her
wooden clogs
and pulled our hair
so we came up
with a plan to
steal her lunch
tickets she
bought on
Mondays for
35 cents each
and turned in for
the count each
day
she was a
child of addiction
poverty without
a mother ~ but a
grandmother
raising her
working hard
to make ends
meet for this
girl, angry at
the world
and not enough
clogs and
shins to fix it
and now
that I see life
from this side
I feel
deep sorrow
for our theft
because we
only hurt
grandma
and our
future
selves
who would
come to
know the
truth
Woodland Critter Friends
I have a secret
sewing project for a new
sweet baby grandson
Morning Games
I see his figure
peeking around the sage chair
looking right at me
acting non-chalant
resting briefly to lick paws
he stretches out, yawns
as if he does not
have a burning agenda
playing me a fool
his ball rests nearby
then a thump of his black tail
and a sudden pounce
an invitation
to an early-morning game
that I can’t resist
Prayer Chamber
I think prayers take a
little travel time sometimes
so I pray pre-prayers
thanking the Good Lord
for His miracles I may
never know He worked
like avoided wrecks
and family protections
like health and safety
I wasn’t surprised
when my son called to tell me
his life had been spared
my morning commute
is my daily prayer chamber
no radio, news
I pray by name for
God’s will for all my loved ones
and I watch God work
Fitz and the Vent
Fitz
Fitz and the Vent
’twas a mystery
that the floor vent was missing
gone; vanished; not there
I asked who stole it
Who would steal a vent? he quipped
I thought we had ghosts
our dog naps on it
in the summer to stay cool
but a Schnoodle thief?
how would he take it?
it’s heavy ~ and he has no
fingers to raise it
why would he want it?
still, my husband checked the bed
it was underneath
we both scratched our heads
he retrieved the vent, replaced
it in his closet
and then we heard it
bumping against the wood floors
when we checked, we saw
Fitz’s collar tag
was caught in the metal slats
as he dragged it out
one mystery solved:
we removed his collar tags
unchained his anchor
Common Threads 