If it is selfish for a couple
not to have offspring
then I wonder why so many
choose to have their own
instead of adopting
children who so desperately need
a home from foster care?
Notes: This was written in response to a rant I read of a newly engaged woman who decided childless married couples were being selfish. I hope people get married for the sake of love and not just for children. Whether you choose to have children or not, or whether that choice is taken from you, I do not judge.
Have you noticed?
All snowmen wait
with their arms outstretched
as if hoping to provide
an embrace
A child’s laughter
brings fruit
to barren old age
But what of the child
who grows and finds
a fading flower
and no swell beneath?
Jimmy sang
In a fourth grade choir
With acrobats and thieves
And great tall liars:
There was lanky George
With his thick black glasses
Spouting about gravity
Between science classes
Pretty pink Patty
Who was lazy as molasses
Yet somehow during PE
She’d run quickest and fastest!
Sporty Jo Baker
Who tied a two-buns do
And pirouetted in leotards
“Oh, yuck to tutus!”
Fast-mouthed McGee
Who hustled at marbles
A mama’s boy who every morning
Never failed to gargle
Playacting Sally
Who knew Shakespeare by heart
And would regale you
With every dying part
Doe-eyed Pete
Who walked like in a dream
And fibbed such scary stories
“Oh, what a scream!”
Princess Penelope
Who mascaraed her eyes
And bragged of her swimming pool
Twice Olympic-sized
There was best friend Carlos
Who wanted a motorbike
And gelled his green hair
Into Sonic the Hedgehog spikes
And Jimmy was Jimbo
A daring little man
Who sang the loudest off-key
And stole music stands
To see the teacher frown
And huddle friends all together
He’d purposely lose song sheets
Because playtime was better!
In my mind I hold the many children
That were friends and foes.
Like Peter, never-changing
They remain.
The vestigial shadows of last year’s flowers —
If I were to find them today:
Only the smell of damp earth.
If a magician charms a child, he is good
But if he insists in magic for an adult
Then he branded a fool and a liar
Wonder, hope, and belief —
That is the happiness we deny ourselves
A pink umbrella
Disembarks from the school bus
Rainy afternoon
Illustration by A. Alexeieff, Russian Fairy Tales, 1945
Etched drawings dabbed
yellow, blue, and red
Prose that speaks
jewel-toned and scarce
Treasure hoards faraway tales
For Pru, Kim, and Diana
On Christmas 1945
Notes: The photo above comes from an actual edition I bought as a gift. Continue reading “Russian Fairy Tales by A.A.”
The wind howls
Through leaf-littered streets
Tiny apparitions
RED GLADIOLA 