The Cycle Spins

West wind whispers in the willows

Small people press faces to their pillows

Hovering hawk hears harvest mice below

Stillness and cold--harbingers of snow

Milky morning light kisses small towheads

Yawning and sniggering they fly out of bed

Yelling, “Mommy, Mommy we want to play”

“Daddy, Daddy, are you staying home today?”

Boisterous family goes playing in the park

Where streaming sunlight washed away dark

Happiness so easy on a bright, light day

What does it take to keep it just that way?

Children grow and children change

In a world sometimes wild and strange

Parents allow their fledglings to fly

With arms open wide to hold if they cry

Hearts are stretched and souls are seasoned

Decisions made either gut-felt or reasoned

Mother is awake waiting in the rocking chair

For youth to come home in the midnight air

Teens mature past heartbreak and pain

Years go around and around again

Steadfast love leads to marriage banns

Juggling relationship and career demands

The cycle spins full circle and then

Different yet the same spins again

West wind whispers in the willows

New mothers fluff their children’s pillows

Grandma smiles indulgently

Knowing these years pass too swiftly

Hovering hawk hears harvest mice below

Stillness and cold--harbingers of snow

Still Vulnerable

That tiny baby in your arms

Exerting tiny baby charms

Plants relationship and family seeds

Teaching you to meet his needs

And so begins the endless dance

Between control and happenstance

The baby learns and the baby grows

Into a child who uses what a child knows

To interpret expression-- smile or frown

When he wants holding, but you set him down

Then as a teen exerting truth or guile

He’ll coax a dollar and draw a smile

By the passions felt and passions gorged

The soul will be massaged and forged

The love it’s craved and the love it’s caught

The hate it’s feared and hate it’s fought

Jealousy, valor, envy and hope

All inform of how he’ll cope

All that he encounters, all he feels

Forever affect how he thinks and deals

Experiences while just a child

Sway him for a long, long while

Even as an adult aware and free

Part of him still vulnerable on Mama’s knee

Creek and Shadows

I’m walking in the shadows

While my feet splash through the shallows

Of the creek that trickles through my memories

I listen to the soft, warm breeze

Whispering through the autumn leaves

Gilded gold, yet valueless to thieves

The leaves keep drifting down

Obscuring the direction I came from

Until I recognize the hum

Slithering into my remembrance

That noisy, cold New York embrace

Where only buildings in the sky

Throw shadows outside my mind’s eye

I came there following a man

Who didn’t really give a damn

And through my broken-hearted hell

Decided, the best revenge was living well

Here where he thought he was king

By outdoing him, I’d reverse the sting

In New York, New York I stayed

Accepting all the accolades

Accorded me as I rose on and up

Drinking from successes’ cup

Until I forgot that I stayed here

Just to prove a point, then disappear

When people asked me what I planned

I’d say that there would come a time

For land with a creek, wild and wide

With Andalusian horses for me ride

Copses of different types of trees

Green grass growing past my knees
 

So, I think it's time that I moved on

It no longer matters what I’ve won

For I have nothing left to prove

It’s time to pack my car and move

Off the asphalt and concrete

To a place with soft earth beneath my feet