As a Kid
1. Childhood was long ago, Memories cherished dear, A large, Polish/Catholic family Suddenly, childhood is near. 2. Looking back on family life, Hindsight seems so clear. Traditions marked my childhood, So much more than tears.
Bored Children (Hour 23)
The most potent emotion I can recall
from my childhood is a feeling of needing
something I could not explain. I have countless
memories of pestering my mother in the living room
of our home, complaining that “I’m bored,” and
“I want to do something.”
My mother usually encouraged me to be
constructive at first, such as finishing my share
of the housework, which I often neglected.
She knew this wouldn’t work, it wasn’t what I was after,
but still, she felt motherly enough to remind me.
After this option was shot down,
she would canter through a list of activities: drawing,
playing outside, reading; all of which sounded unappealing,
and still, my dissatisfaction would fester
like an ache I could not mend, an unmet need
I couldn’t understand at the time.
Hour 23. (2019)
A child in guided steps will walk
Although there are rules it must obey
Its mind is free, its thoughts unblocked
Till adulthood fits it with great shackles and taketh freedom far away
While the body will not be restrained the soul turns grey and dour
Instead of life, just time will pass, hour after hour
While faceless men take infant’s ken
Begin the process all again
As scurried flocks of beauteous wren
Swirl around their tower
Poem 22 “Technology and Nature”
“Technology and Nature” by Mandy Austin Cook
The tendency of Technology
is to tug of war with Nature.
so much waxes and wanes with both characters,
both are needed
both are valued.
Earth asks for balance
Technology to share fast growing knowledge
in an ever evolving faster fashion.
Earth groans with a not QUITE so gentle wisdom
Technology has her brilliance, her roughness,
but not her patience.
Ultimately they need each other.
Technology has to exist on Earth
so be as gentle with her as you can
Her nature is to love you.
Extracurricular Activities
1.
Innocence and purity
But it all ends early
Dirt and chocolate
A childish explosion
Glue and marker stains
Aftermath of art class
2.
Pen ink and paper cuts
Growing pains
Algebra and P.E.
Intro to the internet
Ankle sprains and hairdos
8th grade hobbies
3.
Tennis and kisses
High school drama
Headaches and colleges
The adult life begins
Chemistry and biology
“Oh, a doctor huh?”
Fairy Tale Truth
1 My childhood, like a fairy tale,
Was perfect in its making.
A mother, father, children
All in a house of baking.
2 Daddy went to work each day,
Making money for the bills;
Mother cooked and tended kids,
Taking care of many ills.
3 Dinner on the table
Each day at five-o’clock;
Both kids into scouting:
Eagle Scout, my brother got.
4 Mom was homeroom mother
Baking cookies, fixing food
For all the classroom children
Whether kind-hearted, or rude.
5 If there were any problems,
None were talked about;
Such silence in those rooms–
But if walls could talk, look out!
23 – winters daughter
- rain sprinkled earth, wet and creamy between my fingers, the metal trolley that held my plaster dressed body, heavy on my small arms, muscles growing,
- scars caved into the weakness, always slow, always alone, mind wanders into places a good set of legs would never go, fingers imagine stories,
- dont wriggle, sit still, cross your legs, it doesn’t hurt, always distracted, always pain, thoughts jumble, tears hot, anger grows
- always walking, slow but steady, mile upon mile, to the secret places, up trees laughing with kookaburras, mooing with cows, flying with swans,
- words trip and tumble on the page, little tales, belonging to pictures, the silk bird, pirates and seamaids, dreams of escape loneliness.
2019 – Twenty-Three – “Good Morning” for My Dulcinea
You are often in my dreams
and I assume that I need them
in order to feel you.
But I have been up all night,
writing around the world,
with very few words for you,
very few thoughts of you,
and as the sun creeps across
this unfamiliar room,
as it does at home,
I feel you as if I was
waking. Yet, I have not slept.
I do not sleep to have you.
You are not here just in darkness.
You still come to me
wherever I am,
and in your morning guise,
Now that I must sleep,
will you come to me there too?
Perhaps you are more real than
I’ve supposed.
Bouquets
Bouquets are beautiful
A symbol of co-existence
Of what unity looks like
Every kind of flower
Bundled in harmony
Filled with wishes
Reminding you
That we are meant to exist the same way
Together….
Hour 23, Wild Child
I was a wild child,
twigs in my hair
and the wind under my feet.
I could not be contained
within four walls,
aching to run and be free.
Animals, birds, and bugs
were my companions
and my friends.
People could not be trusted,
but trees never hurt me,
sheltered within their branches.
I disappeared for entire days,
curled like a deer in a hollow,
silent and dappled in shade.
It took some years to tame me,
an elemental contained
by words, the alchemical spell of books.