Firsts for Hadley

february 6th 2010
was hadleys first birthday
grandma milnor gave her
a bouquet of fresh spring flowers
beauty for someone beautiful
it was her first bouquet
there will be
much beauty and many firsts
for this little girl
look who won her first door prize
fair and square
2010 valentines day
at grandmas cabin
the table was set
a beautiful pink azalea
in a pink planter
was the centerpiece
on the old hotel table
it was to be our door prize
aunt sarah and friend jill
were the first to arrive
then nick and sheri with baby hadley
and sheris mom diane
aunt sarah and jill decided
on how to choose the winner of
of the pink azalea door prize
each person drew a number
aunt sarah called out
that two was the winner
in hadleys small hand
the number two on the paper
was already wet crushed and chewed
but not enough that we all couldn't see
hadley had won her first door prize
a happy valentines day

Being Alive

you don't think much about being old
when you are young
but when you get old
you think about it alot
you think about the real meaning
of life
what is it for
why do we have it
minimum control
ultimately no control
if you are lucky young is easy
maybe even fun
you don't know enough
to know
how much you don't know
you pine away the day
wishing for all the wrong stuff
and sometimes you get it
and crash and burn
you have alot of years
for that smooth waxed paper slide
into old age
as a matter of fact
until its here you don't know it
but what you do know is what you didn't know
when you were young
keep waxing your slide
its called
being alive

Gee Whiz

gee whiz
think of that
scaredy cat
don't know
scat flak
seems ok
fluffyness
didn't do
goo goo eyes
goodness sakes
no mistakes
braced words
huddled muddled
no fit fizz quiz
whiz kid
gee whiz

Return to Sender

return to sender
lost love exhumed
tender touches
hopscotch
secret glances
chanced
hushed words
whispers
high hopes
stolen smiles
tears traded
for truth
loveless
dashed trashed
no remorse
simply put
I don't love you
anymore
returned to sender

I'm Back

I'm back
my mind took a vacation
for the entire month
of january
a tricky month
that can fool you
into believing
you are really living
really alive
thinking eating and sleeping
or something like that
a train off the track
I'm back

Slot Machine

slot machine life
all those days gone by
stacked like stairsteps
stored on slot machine like film
running through the annals
of a 72 year old mind
like watching a movie
with no beginning
and no ending
starting and stopping at random
unorganized pictures
holding on to each other
to keep the present coagulated
laughing and crying
until the pictures stop
and I drop another coin
into the slot

Aunt Wilma

when aunt wilma was ten years old
she could walk under the kitchen table
there were whispers about some kind
of bone disease I don't think anyone knew
she was one of nine children
my grandmother delivered
on their farm in northern ohio
there were six boys and three girls
my mom was one of these girls
wilma never got very tall
but lived a long healthy life
alone until she moved into an old folks home
when she was living her middle years
she called home the second floor
of the old family house in a small ohio town
near the farm where she was born
mom use to take my sisters Nedra and Janny
and me to clean Wilmas rooms
there was no upstairs bathroom
mom carried the slop jar down the stairs
and emptied it in the outhouse
the slop jar was the size of a big paint bucket
and very heavy when full
mom gave each of use kids a piece
of something that looked like pink silly putty
we warmed it with our hands
she showed us how to slide it over the wallpaper
which was the way it was cleaned in those days
the pink color slowly turned gray then black
probably the result of the coal furnace
mom washed windows and took Wilmas laundry
to be done at our house
we were glad wilmas house was clean