This
tree
stands –
lights and
ribbons encircling –
like a million other trees.
(remember the popcorn
and cranberry strings? Paper
chains and brightly decorated cookies?)
look! what a cacophony of ornaments!
laughing like stars –
they silently chart our course
across a lifetime.
oh cats, where has the time gone?
Against the antique oak rocker in the alcove leans a needlepoint begun decades ago (18th century American primitive re-created in my hand and style with woolen yarns and carefully selected stitches) Cart roads lead from the ‘big’ house, past out buildings and wild vines heavy with grapes (Norton?) – down at the river, a sailing…
Cats? No more. more cats? No no more cats! Please. Traded: one good airplane for tiny flea and pneumonia ridden kitten it must have been the heat – and humidity of late July Maisie the dog licks, cajoles, barks plays the daily game of chase while we sit and watch Doomed by birth into an…
Life was expectant with spring’s first bud rushed headlong into summer barely paused when Fall rescued us from languid August days. Winter nearing we must linger till morning light to pull on warm clothes slip past sleeping cats and out for our morning walk. No heron or Squirrel – only geese pass overhead, honking snow…
Didn’t understand but listened built an ark loaded animals two by two Cold, wet smelly, nauseating crowded, stifling drifting, drifting day after day, two by two Rain stopped water receded everyone disembarked slowly life began again Seeds and flowers sun and rain nurturing and time to grow Two by two As we reach the shores…
Painted navy gray lifeboat oars, copper straps binding battered tips…
December had barely finished spelling out its name, yet huge, wet snowflakes silently …