Shucking Corn

 We gotta get this corn put up before the days out

Why in the he'll did they order so much of it?

Just like Mama to order all this corn and her be in the hospital

Lord, we gotta laugh, otherwise all we'd do is cry

Jenny Lynn said she'd go to the hospital and sit with Mama

Daddy, sure can't go

He's been drinkinh all night

The bedroom closet is all tore up

Can't hold her, probably never will again, but her smell is all over her clothes

We gonna have bushels of creamed corn for the funeral

I shouldn't have thought that, but I know it's true

My brothers and sisters need to come to their senses and prepare to say goodbye

She ain't coming back after this heartattack

This here's a good crop

It's only June and we got plenty of time for a second go round

Well, Mama,you didn't waste your money this year

If you's sitting right here, you'd say the soil was just right

I look at my brothers and sisters laughing and working, acting a fool

Reckon your soil was good too, Mama

Blank Page

 It stares back at me, almost mocking

Aren't you going to fill me with ink, or do you have nothing to say again?

I stare and stare, but nothing comes

My thoughts are full, but they come in the form of pride, anger, fear, and sadness

Oh wait, I have that story in my head

The one I keep forming in my mind

Each day, I keep telling myself that I'll write it down, but don't

Maybe I can buy a pretty journal and write it down instead of dreaming about it, just a thought

Here's a thought

Stop thinking and write from the heart

Isn't that what they say?

Don't you dare do that, that thing's way too fickle

Just ask the Holy Spirit

He'll help 

When He decides of course

Its His time, not yours

Aching Body

Children, more like toddlers run down the hall underneath large blue streamers hosting silhouettes of sea turtles and whale sharks. Chasing after them, my body rebels. At 49, every part of my body moves in protest. Worse yet, there's no comfort in rest. My legs want to swim while me head desires a pillow. Those eight hours of sleep do not exist in my world. When I wake, my back cries out. Guess this old age. My new job is to embrace it.

Dementia

To my window she comes

There's not much time

Tell me your secrets and and I'll carry them with me

Sprinkle them.on the wooden path, on top of your footprints

On good days, I sit at my window.

Open my broken mind, fish out my memories

And speak

Two by two in song, they drink my words and sing

I'm dying, but my body will go on functioning in this world

In the midnight hours, I busy myself

Boxing up memories, bitter and sweet

Rereading books and poems that contain words for stirring emotion

Saying prayers with the hopes of finally getting the meditation right

Once done, I close the box on my life and bury it

Underneath the bottle tree my husband made from the wine we drank

Before the last pile of dirt was out back in place

I beg and pray that I remember one Word, just one

Christmas Carol Practice

We clicked going for a 9am practice on a Saturday morning 30 minutes away.

We were late, of course and lost

There were no directions posted in the email for the music room

The only one around to ask for directions was a caffeine starved priest seemingly desperate for peace

His directions were perfect, thankfully.

You could here them, 20 girls not quite in tune singing classic/commercial carols for the elderly

I had flashbacks of my choir days in college and wondered why the girl's voices weren't being whipped into shape

Until I realized it's not about perfection, but joy and fellowship

 

Dogwood Tree

My neighbors dogwood tree bloomed the color of purity

As five neighbors stood outside between my house and the tree 

Watching somebody's home across the street burn

All if us in awe, sorrow, and fear

If it happened to their house, it could happen to ours

That vinyl siding house went up in flames like nobody's business

I looked at my cedar house, knowing if it burned, it would be a bonfire for the ages

I put that out of my mind and watched the firemen hook up the water main two steos from my yard

I'm the last of my neighbors to go inside partly in awe of the sight, but mostly in shame

That it was them and not me

Saint Barbara

 It was a tower he put her in

You know, the one on Green Street

In his determination, he declared with a beer in hand

"Ain't nobody gonna disrespect my baby

So up in her tower his daughtet sat pondering creation

When your view is that of a bird, the world looks different

You become above petty shit

Only the best pagan teachers cone to visit

But they that lived below didnt understand that her view was above and closer to God

Boredom sat in

Father sent suitors to her in the prospects of marriage

But they were all sent away

They did not come with water and a crucifix

Only a man of Christ could give her what she desired

Baptism