This Wondrous Now

This wondrous now

is time suspended.

You still hold my hand

when we walk to school

though you now look me

straight in the eye.

You laugh at my jokes

            turn to me for advice.

The eyerolling has yet to start.

Sometimes my words

seep out of you.

My guidance

has stuck, somewhere.

I am reassured.

I hold now
fast in wonder

At my lovely boy
nearly a man.

Cemetery Interlude

I went left as my children went
right through the waving
unkempt grass shrouding
bones beside a road in New England.

Stones tilted toward
me gently reminding
that we tread ground once
hallowed by death, if not God.

Roots twined through remains
whose names were long ago
smoothed by rain and blown away
by a kiss of wind.

My little ones galloped over
the silent graves indifferent then
clambered into the truck continuing
our long day’s journey into night.


From a prompt in the Poets of G+ Community, requiring that I use the phrase "Long Day's Journey Into Night"

Estate Planning

Two dozen graying

cotton pillowcases are

uncloseted for the first

time in twenty-five years

by a woman

Who has grayed as well.

With inexplicable purpose she

   bleaches

     rinses

       washes

          hangs them to dry.

Once inspected they will be

folded along old lines

by creased hands

and tucked away

for good.