Five Minute Friday: Grateful

Stuck Black Friday on Route 22.
Just getting across town to ambush
an unsuspecting uncle with a shoo-fly pie
and healthy helping of post-Thanksgiving love,
I couldn’t help but notice the turkey buzzard
flying overhead as shoppers honked and cursed
and jostled for the next slot to the mall parking lot—
rampant consumerism pushing past Thanksgiving
and squeezing the life out of Christmas…
We shake our heads at impatience as we listen
to Jethro Tull’s “Jack Frost And The Hooded Crow”
and finally break free of traffic to travel
long back roads past fallow fields and old red barns
to sit at the table talking of old times,
grateful to extend Thanksgiving another day.

Sunday Morning

Awake early with stiffness,
having been made a contortionist
by a small dog taking up half my side of the bed,
I find opportunity.
He sleeps
and I am free from feeling the need to be near him –
to comfort,
to care for,
to be present
as I am gone for so much of the time
for work and other obligations.
I wash dishes and feed the little bed-stealing dog
who will soon lie on the landing back in dreamland.
I see the teetering stack of mail that needs sorting
and the cobweb in the windowsill
but it is the dust dancing in a shaft of sunlight
that stops the endless list of things to do from binding tightly around my brain.
I check on my mate – still sleeping peacefully
then make the choice to sit,
to catch up with kindred spirits
unknown
but connected magically through caring and computers.
I choose to read,
to write,
to listen to the promise of a quiet Sunday morning.

Five Minute Friday: Grow

At seventeen,
I thought I had things pretty much together.
At twenty-six,
I’d felt I’d reached a point of maturity
bigger than my skin.
At thirty,
I celebrated physically reaching my mental age.
Now,
battered and blessed at forty-two,
I feel another growth spurt coming on…
Tentative, I peek out from the comforter
to face new possibilities.
Putting my feet to a familiar
but unfamiliar floor, I breathe
and stand—
waiting to see
if it is just another fantasy
or finally time to let the hem out.

For those who were wondering... while the poems are always written in five minutes (or actually under five mostimes), I admit to formatting line breaks after. Thanks again to Lisa-Jo for her writing prompt and for introducing me to community of beautiful people. She has helped me to keep writing (if only briefly) at least once a week and I am truly grateful.

Five Minute Friday: Unexpected

Milo wouldn’t let me sleep for a 9 minute snooze.
He just wasn’t having it this morning –
wanting breakfast,
wanting out,
wanting someone to chase him around the couch
in his circle-game of dog-is-so-much-faster-than-human.
Standing in the back yard
with his leash looped around a single finger,
wondering how I teleported here from the warm sheets,
I caught the moon
hanging in a neighbor’s tree –
a lone light, bright and full and smiling softly.
Milo looked up at me and wagged,
somehow having known
I needed this peace
more than sleep.

He is such a good little Zen dog… :)

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Five Minute Friday: Remember

A swirl of cigar smoke
steadily brushed to my face and beyond
by brine-filled breezes and spray
from the water ever-crashing at our feet,
the moon sliding behind
dark cotton-candy clouds
then peeking out again to see if we were still watching…
Alone
and not alone
on that prohibited night beach,
surrounded by shadows of unknown ancestors
and wrapped in the fullness of being together
quiet
in the cacophony of wind and waves
etching our revered moment into memory.



Please visit The Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday... and a wealth of inspiration and smiles.