The Blank Wall

 

With a blank wall

I have nothing to erase

No hurdles to jump over

No hoops to jump through.

Only possibilities.

So I stare and ponder.

Shadows play cat and mouse

On the blank wall in my mind.

Ladders go nowhere

And paths go in circles.

Words and phrases float like dust

Fragments of sentences are only words.

Seeds without packets long to be planted

But my mind is rocky soil.

I chase butterfly dreams with a fish net,

And they escape.

Then I see it—a word like a single step leads to another.

Before I can stop the flow,

My poem is complete.

Cindy Herndon

 

 

 

Ten Years Ago

 

Ten years ago I had no idea

What a broken ankle felt like

Or what limitations it would cause.

I took driving and walking for granted.

 

A decade ago neither of my children were married.

What gave me great joy was not a blip on a radar screen for them

 

Ten years ago I thought I would retire in just one year

But I am still teaching…and loving it.

 

I would not have conceived being in an art gallery

Or published

Or content to be at home creating.

 

Ten years ago I was in the same house

With the same husband

Doing so many of the same things

Thankful and content.

Cindy Herndon