Posted on No Comments on primary caregiver

primary caregiver

(july 2013)



Step one of growing older in the presence of the elderly: observe how the giants of your childhood wither into frailty
Step two: begin to second guess every eccentricity
Is this what they meant by signs to look for?
When did she get so small?
How could she have ever forgotten my birthday?
Step three: dance around her with the nervousness reserved for the ill.
She will look at you with the resentment that can only come from those whom illness has only left shame and regret.
Step four: begin to hold her hand again.

It is one to thing to care for the senescent
And another to do it in the house they raised you in.

Posted on No Comments on bankrupt

bankrupt

(oct. 2013)

Part of me longs for richness

With wealth comes the freedom

To make your home in whatever place you like.

Tell me that true wealth comes from loving

And I will tell you that love goes far

But cannot feed empty bellies

You cannot pay bills on love alone

And too much of this life comes with a price.

Tell me I cannot eat money

But tell me what I can eat without it.

Tell me that true wealth comes from the people you hold in you heart

And I will tell you that there are people

Who want

-more than all these poor friends they seem to have-

To just stop feeling so worthless for a little while

Tell me again how your parents seemed completely certain

That sacrificing everything so their children could sample a bit of the lower middle class life was the right decision

Try telling them there is more to life than money

Tell me to rid myself of these ties to money

And I will tell you that you cannot unlearn generations of feeling that the money you earn is your only worth in one lifetime

And I still haven’t learned to stretch poverty into a life lesson.

Posted on No Comments on re: self care

re: self care

I am learning mantras

And rubbing them

Like oils into my skin

Mine is a good body

And the world,

Wondrous as it is,

Is made more so

When I am in it

These are my balms.

Let them be salves

For the cracks in my soul.

Posted on No Comments on To The Stump In my Garden

To The Stump In my Garden

Day 7- Take a walk until you find a
tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor
for yourself or your life.

To the stump in my garden that has begun to sprout

Mere days after its branches have been shorn:
Teach me whatever lessons you have learned

How to give thanks for your still solid roots

And how to recalibrate the hardened fibres of your bark

And make life once more.

Posted on No Comments on In Your Old Age

In Your Old Age

Day 3- Find the nearest book (of any
kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a
poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem.

Senescence is the great equaliser.

great men, average men,

men of faith, men of none

living life with the promise

that some of its secrets will be revealed

but all you will ever learn

are verbs like forgetting

and dying.

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Light Pollution

“the light reveals all
sins,” she always said. but the
dark shows me the stars.