A couple of pieces of luck jingle
like two coins tossed into my hand
foretelling I believe yet more for
I see my own life bouncing
comfortably in God’s pocket
a sighing extravagance of spirit
wide awake with quiet wonder.
Author: Kay Foley
Lent
Lent begins today, forty days of sacrifice.
On Ash Wednesday as uniformed girls in
Catholic school we were given
boxes with forty pockets meant
to hold forty nickels. If we managed
to fill all of the pockets with nickels
we were entitled to purchase and name
a pagan baby! What an extravagant prize!
A child a human being (even a pagan)
is by any measurement quite a prize.
My sister dutifully gave up her nickels
in exchange for a document
certifying that she had indeed
purchased and named a pagan baby.
She named the pagan baby Kathleen Marie
after me. Handily, all of us schoolchildren
had also learned to baptize any hapless
pagans in the unlikely event we
encountered one in Real Life.
My own nickels likely went the way
of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate bars.
I was never much good at Lent.
Dry Winter
This day so blustery and white of sky
thick with clouds damp of air is
purported to be mostly sunny
a bright yellow image pictured thus
accompanied by a balmy temperature
and yet a thoughtful glance at both the
calendar and the real world suggests
snow falling thickly in piles and drifts
mountains of it covering All
a thing we have not seen once
in this winter of 2011-2012
a milquetoast winter if ever
there has been one.
A Goal
In vain I try the length of my rambles
to learn a skill I failed to grasp in
childhood or ever beyond a thing
Others seem to have come by
without effort as easily as I learned
to tie my shoes skip a rope
a simple thing it seems and my
son laughs dumbfounded as I
fail at this simple thing I want to do.
Ohing and oohing, blowing and
whooshing pursing pouting pushing
and barely a sound issues forth.
But I have a goal and I continue
gamely on. Before the year is out
I will whistle.
Two Years Ago
Two years ago this day I brought
my handsome silverblack dog home
to start a life with me and here
he lies curled up beside me
beautiful young chap whose name
(given by my friend who died
five months later my friend whose
need led me to him) suits his
personality to a T. Imminently
imperturbable eager to please
pleasantly eager loving friendly
sweet-tempered mild-mannered
Miles.
Interpretation
Who was that little bird I heard
its clear voice calling He’s he-ere!
across and back through the trees
to a like-minded other who called
it back again and again?
I had no good sighting but committed
the sound to memory with those words.
He’s he-ere! Now I hear Teacher Teacher Teacher
outside my window, my clumsy ears
converting the calls of birds to
human words. In like manner we
interpret each other’s words as we
see fit, right or not and if not
oh what trouble we bring
upon ourselves.
Landscapes
Vast blue sky painted with clouds
narrow strip of dry horizon scrub and
brush every neutral shade represented
every vista a painting of the Wild West.
Where are my cowboy hat, my boots?
Yet another landscape to love
on this magnificent planet we inhabit
lucky humans that we are.
Vows
A high heel shoe
a dress of blue
a heart that’s true
a me and a you.
Poems in a book
a stolen look
a dare we took
sitting by a brook.
A bright sunny day
the month of May
boats on the bay
a will and a way.
A plate of cake
plans we’ll make
vows to take
never to break.
Healing
Home from a healing visit with my sister
my two dogs sprawled across my lap.
I slept in my mother’s old room
tender memories lifting umbrella’d
into the arching vaulted spaces of my brain
my sister and I again our soft familiar selves
oh yes there you are and how I’ve missed you!
no longer separated by whatever sharp edges
had torn and scraped at us now comfortably
companionable once again in that old way
we both had missed more even than we realized.
What Love Means
Love for others means romance
candles rings and roses
but for me coming home to
my home my son my dogs
on a February day
after a week away.