THOUGHTS ON THE WEEK OF OCTOBER
BETWEEN STOPS
A hand clamps down on my shoulder from behind
Spinning round
A stranger looms over me
He says, “Your skin’s so soft,” as
His fingertips stroke the top of my hand
Unnerved I stare
He is shocked to see a dog in my bag
I am shocked by the dog in his eyes
There is no God there
What’s the dog’s name? What is your name?
What’s in a name?
You’ll never know
Go away, go away
But he leans in and kisses my cheek
I want to cry but I am tough
He looks awkward, lost
Go now, go now
I cannot give you my dog, my purse
My heart or my name
The bus comes
Rescued
We vanish like thieves in the night
ROAR
The lion roars in a heartbreaking lament
Calling for his mother at days end
The sunset envelops the horizon in a wash of shocking pink,
Firey orange, Technicolor red and violet
There is no sky only heaven showing itself
For a brief moment
The lion calls out with such longing
as trees dance up towards God’s watercolor
The lion’s plea I understand as
I cry out for my mother deep within my soul
Can our mother’s hear us I wonder?
The sky is now ablaze, it’s beautiful,
Beautiful enough to stop my heart
I cry for the lion
We all know longing, we all know longing
The night descends
CHAGALL
Like Chagall’s peasants you lived in the air in the corner of the ceiling
Up above the piano near the front porch windows
You were seated with us at the kitchen table
Or at the stove cooking
Or on the sofa watching the TV
Or paying bills at the dining room table
But you really never left that corner where you drifted away from us
Your daughter, your husband, your son
But you did it so well, with a smile
With your homemade chocolate cake
Or packed lunches of fried chicken
Or badges sewn onto my Girl Scout sash
Or hanging up a perfectly pressed dress shirt
But it was a distraction to keep us from seeing
That you were never really there
You were in some other life, some other place
deep inside yourself that you would not share
Such as incredible feat to fool us all
A magician, a sorcereress, making us believe that you cared
Such a difficult act to be a ten-year-old girl
Still waiting for her father to come home
Though he never will
A broken child; everyday life was too much for you
And none of us could pull you down to earth
Get you to put your feet on the ground
Hands bloodied, hearts broken
Your gravity defying act defeated us all
If only you could have loved us
Maybe you would not have missed him so
I could have made a lasso of my tears and
Thrown it around you and pulled you down to earth
Instead my tears only washed my feet
running down the drain to feed an ocean filled with child’s sorrows
Or perhaps I could have made a painting
Of you descending to earth, defying Chagall’s rules
Come down now even though the ceiling is infinity and stardust
And I can be the one to make you a chocolate cake
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