Poetry Wednesday

Stop

Breathe

Re calibrate

Reconfigure

And begin again.

Old Letters

I found a letter from 1997 I wrote you;

Sitting in 2016, it's a time capsule.

You really were my best friend

and I loved you.

I read a line about the boy I crushed on,

who, when I ran into him two summers after we met, 

wearing a polyester 70's disco shirt,

a small gold earring.

I said the connection was still there between us, but

knew something was different;

I had to again get to know

the man that houses the boy

who once wanted to kiss me in the moonlight.

Only,

that boy changed,

and she is a beautiful wordsmith.

I now understand why something was different between us

And you are gone.  

We memorialized you yesterday.

I cried a river and then drank wine and ate chocolate,

making my husband cry too.

God, you were so talented

and loved.

Your boys walked solemnly in the isle; 

Red, blonde, black tousled hair.

Did you know about him?  

What would you have said about her? 

I found her after you moved on,

before the beautiful service you arranged,

before my funeral dress was covered in Kleenex lint.

You both are intertwined in my memory;

dancing in the rain, uninhibited, uncontrollable, impressionable.

7/18/2016

The Distance: 1995, 2016

The Distance: 1995, 2016

Through the tunnel,

memories sharp from years of examination;

I see you dancing in the rain,

With wild abandon;

A unique voice I envied and loved.

And you are gone now.

I see him,

Beautiful and delicate,

Words like butterflies,

And the awkwardness;

I thought he was the one that got away.

I was thinking of you yesterday,

And started following rabbit holes,

Searching out what happened to him,

since I know what happened to you.

And he turned into a she.

The distance between a youthful summer,

All of us, 

That potential met;

And today, 

throwing words down between meetings,

mothering,

working,

reading.

I lost both of you 

And need to find my voice again.

Solo Driver

Solo driver

Deep breath in-

The honeysuckle permeates My memory

The same night many moons ago

The fresh smell

The possibilities as I slide in behind the wheel

Headed out for the first time alone;

The excitement for life stretching out in front

I crave that feeling

Freedom