The Poetry Marathon

Something New

With red lights of apprehension flashing wildly

endings stroll into our lives.

We cannot stop it, or run from it.

When a season ends stable ground shakes like an earthquake.

The death of a loved one has a strength greater than man can create.

It can shift one’s trajectory in any unexpected direction

leaving the most organized person in a shambles.

But it is out of the dust that struts something stronger,

something beautiful, something new.

I have been walking a journey.
A journey that I am grateful to walk.
There are days when the mud is deep and struggle to keep lifting my feet,
Other days the mountains get steeper,
With every lonely morning,
But I know that God is bringing me better days.
He has given me hope for marriage and a family.
A man who is ready, willing, and able to love me as I should be loved.
A child we will both feel blessed to have.
A child of impact with parents of action.
These blessings these are the gifts that I journey for in a time lacking of hope and light.

Walking into the room I see your tall stature ahead of me.
It can’t be you; we went our separate ways.
My heart starts to race, but I do not want to show that I am reacting.
As to turn around and glance down to me, I can see it in your eyes.
You are the man I knew before, but things are different, you have changed.
As your eyes shoot through me, my heart melts as you begin to speak.
You have always removed my every care with your presence
Though I have not always admitted it.
It is but moments before we embrace like nothing ever got between us.
This is it.
This is real.
I am yours
And you are mine.
Only mine.
The embrace is strong.
We will never be separated again.

The day had been beautiful
The sun remained high in the sky as we took our hike.
The incline, manageable, though the miles just kept coming, or so it felt.
There had been periodic breaks while we took a leisurely pace.
Beautiful sites abound on this trip,
God’s exquisite paintings at every turn.
But this one. This one took the cake.
Entering under the falls,
Sweat trickling over our faces,
Relief in our sites as the sun began to set.
Our ride would be coming soon to take us back to our cars,
Thankfully, there was time to indulge in a dip.
In a joyous refreshing dip.
The water running over our faces,
Cooling our tired bodies as we float among the fish.
The perfect way to end the day.

Leave it to a contest to tease you on the home stretch.
With just four posts remaining,
Without substantial sleep since the night before last,
Now they ask what we want most?
But of course, I want to set my head on my pillow the most.
It is but a simple thing.
Something easily done.
But for the insomniac writer,
Or the writer of a contest,
A pillow simply becomes the thing most wanted.

In the dark of night when the demons slip in and out of dreams
A dim light is off in the distance.
In the night sky stars twinkle to remind us that we are a part of something larger.
When we are in the dark crevasses of depression,
God tells us that we will be ok.
He reminds us that He is always there.
He is the light in the dark.
Our hedge of protection when demons come to invade God’s plan for us.

In epidemics of yesterday
Americans watched as other countries donned a mask to stop the spread of illness.
It is a basic concept,
Wear a mask to prevent sharing any virus that you may have with others.
It all makes sense when someone else is being told to do it.
Then came the Coronavirus.
The pandemic of today has scientists all over the world pleading for people
to social distance and wear a mask.
And while other countries have set their pride aside and covered their faces
Americans, with all of the pride and obstinance of teenagers continues to refuse to use a face covering.

If only we could set our obstinance aside to see that we are all in this together.
Your inaction is selfish.
You take other people’s lives in your own hands when you refuse to cover up.
As we were all told when we were kids,
There is no I in TEAM.
Put your mask on.
Thank you!

You had been awake most of the night.
And we had family coming in the morning.
I had only slept a couple of hours as the sun began to rise.
There was a light dew dusting the grass as the fog began to burn off.
You wasted no time in waking me when you were ready for your bottle.
I had not yet dressed when your grandma arrived to relieve me.
You looked so adorable in your brand-new Easter dress,
The soft pink gingham and white cotton lace paired with your little white shoes
Just perfection.
Grandma brought brunch; I was so happy to have help.
This Easter was your big reveal to most of the family
And while I knew that you could not go wrong,
Little did I know
that you would have a gift for me that Easter.
For as we sat around that afternoon after we ate an early dinner,
You surprised your father and I as you,
With all the ambition of the fighter that you are
You pulled yourself up to not only stand next to the coffee table,
But you took your first steps between us.
Your dad tried to record it,
While I started to cry,
Happy tears of course.
My dear daughter, we are so proud of you.
And we love you.

When I was a kid, we were lucky to have a record player.
Vinyl records brought music the people around the world
With tones muffled by the static of a needle gathering lint as the table turned.
The more they were played the more likely the album got scratched.
With the cassette tape came clarity of a recording studio
And a more compact player,
Gone was the day of larger record players
And problems of lint.
But just when we thought our music was as good as it could be,
Our cassette tapes got stuck in players,
Breaking in the listener’s frustration.
Out came the Compact Disc,
But now the listener wanted more
And compact discs could not be easily played on the go.

Is that when we got MP3s dad?
Yes son, out of the CDs came MP3s.

It is everlasting,
Growing and evolving over time.
It has a softness that is always comforting
And a strength unmatched by challenged.
It is desired by many,
Found by few,
And deserved by all.