Composed 11/7/21
Description: My father passed away unexpectedly in May.
The frost took the flowers last night
Once colorful, vibrant
Gone in an instant
Withered, cold to the touch
Your funeral flowers
Taken, transplanted, and watered with tears
Are untouched
Risen, sheltered by home
Absurdly more abundant
Than any foliage grasping to the ground
A strange
Comforting reminder
That you are now immortal
And more alive than even me
grief
I Wish I Knew
Composed 9/4/17
Description: Inspired by life and today’s Daily Prompt: Educate.
Oh how to help a friend in need?
My empathy seems unfounded and strange
But I feel it
How do I express it?
Words seem repetitive and frivolous
I yearn to act
But I am at a loss about how to proceed
I wish I could know your mind
And act it out silently
So you could know my odd sincerity
Is not robotic but deep
Falling through a pit in my heart
To the stomach
And welling up to the throat and leaking through the eyes
Though I try to swallow
I suppose
I just care
About you about all of
This
And I wish you were aware
That you are not alone
That I am there
Rainbow Bridge
Composed 10/29/16
Description: When I originally looked at the word prompt for today, “Bridge,” I soon thought about Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary. Whenever a doggy member of their family dies they say they “crossed the rainbow bridge.” I always thought that was just a cute thing to say, but today I googled it and found that the “rainbow bridge” is a reference to an old prose poem that talks about where pets go when they die — you guessed it, the rainbow bridge, a lovely meadow where animals play until their owners die and the two “move on” together. Strangely, a close friend of mine had a pet loss today, so really there was nothing else I could write about. So here is my interpretation.
Darkness then
White
And luscious green
(If animals can see such a thing)
Perhaps it’s more damp and fragrant
Grass after rain
And a lightness
Free from pain
Old pals, new buddies
Sticks between their teeth
Running, jumping, up and downhill
Mud underneath their feet
For many years
For others only days
When a well-known nose twitch
Sends tails on a wild craze
More running and jumping
On people this time
And with a hand on a head
They step back in time
And follow the rainbow together
Up to that place divine
Scraps of Paper 