Mother if I could live again,
I’d be your Mama, your next of kin
so you could know the grace
of being raised by such a gentle soul.
If the universe can grant me a wish,
let it be that we all meet again
#poetry #grief #mother #daughter #processing

let me shelter all this love inside a
child whose soul is as bright as yours.
who loves to open kitchen windows and living room doors.
who wants to see every four am
fog.
I’d embrace your mystery and teach you to value it as fact.
Children are geniuses,
everyone knows that.

Hold you tender and dear
teach you math and never to fear
why an answer might lead to pain.
I’d erase any trace of that from your brain.
Make pastures far wilder and greener
than those that raised us to hide our better selves.
If life should be so kind,

I shove you in the words as if they
will fill the ashes on my desk with thoughts.
Its a conversation,
or perhaps I do it just to hear you again
whispered, tender, grotesque--a gentle decree
"Remember, no dog-ears, leave pages free."

#poem #poetry #grieving #writingpoetry

Smiling in stillness, stuck driving a pickup
getting up to nothing good I reckon.
I knew not the story behind the snapshot,
it was handed to me at your funeral.
Where all the goodbyes grieve like I do,
it was nice to say hello to something new.

I shove in a photograph
right after committing our titular taboo
I want to try something new
in the newness of a world without you.