To Dad

I tried
Together to rip off the band-aid with you

To allow the city sun to shine upon the wounds we allowed others to inflict

Vitamin D for our tough-skinned inner-child

The parentified children we were
The superhero we each became

Heal with me, I shrieked to deafened ears
The same way we’d said it to dad

Heal for me

New Ocean

A freeing, I imagine, is the gift we’d gift eachother

Leave the striving and othering to striving others grasping for some brass ring

Leave the grasping to the ocean waves that want more of the shore

A new ocean and eachother’s, I know…gold rings…free

Motherhood

And then, daylight
Appeared — what for, this song
This soft white light
The quiet, cool exhalation
I’d waited a lifetime

None books I’d read
No wisdom sent my way
Foretold through the ages
Oh, those kind sages!
The wholesale beauty of you

Just Like Yesterday

Were I to wear cowgirl boots on New Year’s Eve’
Would they walk me to your shine?

Were you to spin 70’s tunes on your record player
Would your dancin’ feet meet mine?

What did you wish for on your birthday without me
A shared path for us to find?

What I begged of the Ghost of Christmas Past
A machine to turn back time….