The Ball
Bell of the ball
Dance, twirl, and glide
Player of the ball
Base, foot, and basket
the fireflies are moving
& i will always love you
there is an open space,
hollow with warmth & loneliness
what is here is here is here
& that is all & that is enough
Mighty God,
Thank you for a beautiful day
a day full of hope and promise
thank you for the sunshine and flowers,
those gifts that I often take for granted
Thank you for the people in my life
the fierce friends, work friends, neighbors,
and the family that can irritate me
and make me laugh at the same time
and my sweet husband
Thank you Lord, for my boys
who are grown, yet will always be my babies,
please keep them safe and help them to figure
out the complex issues that life throws at them
and help them to navigate the hard times with grace
Please help those who are heavy on my heart
with serious illness and complex problems
help them to know that they are not alone and
please put people in their lives to help
and help those already there to be a blessing
Thank you for loving me,
as I make mistake after mistake until I realize that,
yes, you were trying to tell me that wasn’t a good idea
please help me listen for your voice, before I charge
ahead with my own will
I love you and thank you for the gift of life,
and all the blessings that you have bestowed on me
thank you for this big, wonderful world you created
and thank you for the many unique and wonderful people that you put in it
and thank you for words, that I use every day to communicate with you and others.
Amen
I want to be more present with you.
I want to appreciate your smile more.
When I am lost in thought
or staring at my phone,
I look up to see you
grinning and being playful.
I want to accept that invitation
more often.
I lose hours
trying to create something
but lose sight of the fact
I’m creating it for us.
Days and weeks pass by.
I want to remember my time with you.
I want to remember your words.
If you ever go,
I know I will treasure
every scrap of you I can find.
I’m often in my head,
worrying about the future,
reliving the past.
I’m always somewhere else.
But I’d rather be with you.
We didn’t rake the leaves. We refuse to mow the clover and violets. Now I’m seeing more fireflies than I have since childhood. I’m grateful.
firefly witches
rise in the oak tree
wishing Star
Ice cream stained on my lips
I lick them and think of your mouth on mine
Our hands sticky,
Yet still holding
Our teeth ache from the cold,
But we continue eating
Oh, how I wish you were as sweet
As you are in my mind
Time to dust
off all the happy songs
along with the costume pieces
I forgot I owned, bedazzled corsets
and feather boas
I have to confess
I don’t really know
what I’m doing here
but all of a sudden
I’m willing
to get dolled up,
put on my pretty face
and see what happens.
Three red horses
dance hugely
on their own wall.
Their coats quiver.
One looks up from the cobalt stream
as if startled by an indifferent visitor drifting by,
but I am in front of them,
frozen,
staring through ripples of red energy
emanating from them
with a force that quakes my thighs.
My feet have become blocks,
my arms stiffened at my sides so
my fingers can’t wipe my eyes.
At 18, I am innocent against such power.
Twenty seven years ago
I was holding you in my arms
Fourteen hours of labor
And there was your face
White hair and blue eyes
I could not have imagined
How in love with you I would
Be then and now your sharp
Wit and challenging personality
You told me truths I needed to
Hear and kept me questioning
What matters, what is real
And why I need to recognize
Those aspects of myself that
Aren’t always easy to accept,
What is before my eyes.
Beautiful child, you make me
Look inward and grapple with
What I don’t always want to know.
How grateful I am to have given
Your brilliance to the world.
If only it could see itself with
Your raw vision.
KW. 6/10/23
Her voice isn’t a cliche
“like honey”
No, her voice is much more like an aged bourbon
going down like fire
and molasses
and, that voice inches from my ear
into my chest
and it burns
all the way down
and sweetens as it sits warm
in my belly
