Month: February 2022

Your Poem From Me Request #7

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The Giving Cause: This Mother’s Love

Photo by Steven Robert Green via ReShot

Haiku, 7 Parts

I’d gift-wrap the sun
and host it over your heart
giving you pure light

Harper, my first girl
this mother can find no words
expressing my love

a reason to live
enhanced by your smiling eyes
I’m yours forever

and to you, baby
God made the perfect painting
when he gave me you

Everly, sweet girl
you were here before, I think
old soul, moon seeker

this mother’s love is
an unscalable mountain
an ocean of care

my girls, my world is
a bold sunbeam of wonder
I will not fail you

Thank you to J. Bug, (a co-worker of mine) for allowing me to gift a poem to you. I will never know what it feels like to be a mother, but I am glad I got to experience writing this poem.

To learn more about Your Poem From Me: The Giving Cause, click here. Let me write a poem for you. I can give it life.

Homegoing

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Chrissy and I. I must’ve been about five years old in this photo.

there was a light
within you–touched
others, breathed new life
into them. they felt it,
always.

people from miles upon
miles away, unlinked but
linked by you–by who
you were.
your gift had been in
every breath you took.

your sheer existence was life.

and when many gather to
compliment a soul, and everything
said is positive, this speaks
volumes.
it’s who you were.
it’s who I knew and love,
and so many others too.

so, you are going home now . . .
this is where I leave you–
it’s where I lay a final
kiss on your cheek, a
last tight hug, and words
left unspoken, shared.

until we meet again
in the beyond past the
beyond, I will greet you
with a smile on
my face, and love in my heart
because every bit of
you had been a present
to unwrap and give to
someone else.

I blow out a candle for
your physical body
will find its way beneath six
feet of dirt and clay,
but your spirit . . .

your spirit lives on.

Drake & Jernee

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Guard dogs: Jernee & Drake
Naptime
Waiting for dinner.
Drake, being such a good boy.
Getting ready to head out for a nightly walk.

I am keeping my cousin’s dog, Drake, while they travel for my cousin’s funeral, which is today. It will stream live via YouTube, so I will tune in for it later. I do not do well around crowds now. Social anxiety is probably an understatement. Plus, I just cannot endure funerals.

I’d rather remember Chrissy the way I have her in my mind; lively, full of love and hope, and vibrant. I do not want whatever image the casket will display of her trapped in my mind forever.

These two, though . . . are like Frick & Frack. It’s really quite amazing to watch them interact. Jernee is older by nearly five years, but you would never know it by simply looking at them. I am glad I have their comfort today.

Hello Again, Death–You’re Uninvited

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Photo by Cecily Ward via ReShot

A Lamentation

the last breath cuts
sharply — aims for
the heart

we all feel it

amazingly, suffering comes
in waves
no longer tortured by
the machines that
kept you breathing, you
can soar

how fragile the human
life — how glass-like;
the cracks and piercings
dangle as cautionary tales
to be told in the future

I said the only words 
I could muster, “I love you — 
I love you so much.”
and I did and I do and 
I always will

this world was too blind
to see a gem shining
before it — God knew this,
didn’t he?

I give myself excuses
and blink on blips of 
memories loading to keep
me above water

a foreign concept — picking up
my phone to never
hear your voice again;
no more conversations engrossed
in hilarity or tears or common
reflections of family ties

I ache all over

this is pain — the kind
that creeps in unexpectedly 
with death at its heels — uninvited
I need the calmness of 
your presence and I 
will never have that again

there are some still
adamant about this
treacherous virus being
a hoax, but let me
testify

I’ve lost the sun
moon and stars and
nothing about it
is fake

yours was a love that
held me when I 
needed to be held, that 
comforted me in all
my weariness

who will love me 
like that again?
there are no replacements;
I knew the greatest
familial love there is next
to a mother and child

and I am glad I did

maybe you’re my angel
and if it is true — spread 
your wings around me,
ensure my actions won’t 
be what they shouldn’t

I long for you near and
can’t have you — never, 
ever, again

Originally published in soliloque via Medium.