Just Fine

Sometimes words and music bend my mind

With meanings obscured and undefined

Bypassing thought and consciousness

Blending into the universe’s sweet morass

I tried to find the thread and pull it free

But perhaps I pulled a line not meant for me

Like an artery filled and flowing red

I pulled too tight until it snapped and bled

I searched for another and found a vein

Pulsing with the aching blue of untold pain

I tried to let it fall and leave it where it lay

But my sticky fingers hooked would not give way

Its beating path led me to your door

Where you lie prone and naked on the floor

I fell to my knees to see if you still lived

Your soul journeyed while your body grieved

Either my ministrations or simply fate

Brought you back before it was too late

Spirit returned-- your eyes burned into mine

And somehow I knew we would be just fine

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