PAD Day 26 - Shakespeare Words

Ode to Your Eyeball

Your eyeball makes me self-conscious –

As it strays to the left or right I completely ignore

your other eye, not sure where I ever made eye contact with others

when their eyes were not

wandering to and fro.

Please don’t think I am distracted – I am very interested in

what you have to say,

just please hold that eyeball still!

PAD Day 25 - Across The Sea

The Sea

Looking across the sea I feel like I can finally breathe.  The salt air

and timeless scene relaxes my mind and brings me back to me

and who I was before and even before that. 

I am centered and in balance with the universe, and

I realize that I am okay, if only for this moment.

PAD Day 24 - Moment

The Moment

June 27, 1987 at 4:08 am

I woke up and at that moment,

before I knew it, I lost

our next day,

our next kiss,

our next argument,

our next make-up,

our next glance.

We lost our future,

our dreams,

our white picket fence.

At that moment, I lost everything

…with you.

 

PAD Day 23 - History

The Witch’s Spell

 

You would think that a witch, a true witch,

would have been able to save herself.

“Witch Finders” should not have had such power,

no man should. Nor should little girls.

The fact that it was about land, really, and not spirituality made me want to scream.

I don’t know why this made it worse for me.

Maybe because you can’t touch anyone’s spirit,

you can’t change it,

but you can touch and change land.

And it was all about men too, because they wanted it all.

For a group of people who wanted freedom from persecution they really did a turnabout.

Who am I to disparage them?

Today’s society scorns each other as if it were sport.

Doesn’t matter what color, religion, sexual orientation – whatever,

we all get up in each other’s faces,

or better yet each other’s social media – for what?

It’s not for land.

I don’t think it’s for anyone’s spirituality either.

I think they must have been true witches after all,

and they have cursed their tormentor’s children for generations

and will continue to do so.

Their curse?

To let history repeat itself and for us

not to learn the lessons.

PAD Day 21 - What I Am

What I Am

 

As the youngest girl, and invisible middle child

I never thought I would be an ambassador.

Not for a country or an organization, although most certainly one of good will.

I am an ambassador for my family.

Funerals, weddings, reunions, birthdays,

it is I who show up.

When asked about the others

I paint a rosy picture of where they are

and what they are doing.

Everyone knows who I am, but in my position in the family

they never remember my name.

I was not the pretty one, the smart one, the athletic one, the adventurous one.

If they had noticed, I was the one with my

face buried in a book under a tree,

pretending I had run away and all

I needed to do all day was live in my head.

I was the one in the background at family events,

washing and drying dishes,

listening to family gossip

and where the girls went clubbing

and where they stole their make-up.

I knew when my sister started smoking

and when my brother got blithering drunk at a party

when he was supposed to be at a friend’s house.

I knew these things but they were safe with me.

As the quiet one I thought I would be safe from having to interact. 

Now that I’m older, I am the ambassador for my family. 

If someone is looking for information about someone they contact me.

Funny, if someone were to inquire about me,

they would be hard pressed to get an answer. 

I know my family, but

they don’t know me.

 

 

 

All Apologies

 

Just a note to let you know, if anyone was watching and wondering why it’s taken me so long to post something after posting nearly every day this past month, that I had to stop for a while.  There was a family emergency, and although I brought my computer with me I felt it was way more important to be with family than to hole myself away somewhere and write.  Believe me, I thought about it, and I checked the writing prompts at night, but I could not tear myself away from these people, and the tragedy that brought us together.

Sometimes prayers aren’t answered the way one wishes them to be.  This was one of those times.  I’ll write about it some other time, but I just wanted to let ya’ll know that I’m still here and that I did complete the PAD Challenge from Writer’s Digest.  I’m not going to post the rest of April in one day though.  I would like to pair some of it up with photos so it’ll be a little while. 

 

 

I hope you enjoy them.  I still say that poetry is NOT my strong suit.

PAD Day 22 - Nature

Dragonfly

 

To experience a dragonfly communicating with you is truly remarkable.

I believe that dragonflies are our loved ones

that have passed on. 

They are here to reassure us

that they are still here, watching over us.

When one lands on me I think it must be someone who truly loved me,

like my nana or my dad.

I always smile and stop what I’m doing

and wait for it to take off again.