Edge
The edges and the corners
That is where i find you
Edges and corners
The ends of my being
Here you choose tobe
I am no more here
Beyond this is air
But of a
But all of my existence is here
On the edge and the corners of
You
Pillow top
lavender and more, topped with that essence of gentle hard core raw love…
Poem 10
My father’s last day
was nothing
like all the days
that came before it.
The ones where
he held my hand,
scolded me,
patiently helped me
through my math homework,
disappeared into the cellar
to whistle while he
built a shelf and
escaped from his life
or had a story to tell.
My father’s last day
was nothing
like all the bad dreams
I had had
as a child,
in which he died suddenly,
or once went willingly
and I could not stop him.
My father’s last day
was one of
confusion…
for him,
for me.
Where were his thoughts
as he lay dying?
Did he see my face as
my own or his mother’s?
Was he remembering
his childhood friends and their pranks?
My thoughts
were remembering
memories I didn’t
know or
remember
I had…
the way he whistled
when he walked,
his laugh,
how once he blew breath at me
in the cold winter air before work
as I watched him leave the house.
My father’s last day
was nothing
like all the days
that came before it.
Eve Remillard
8/13/2013
Stole the show
We may have to go our separate ways
But at least we stole the show
It’s not what we wanted
But what choice did we have?
But at least we stole the show
Sometimes, it’s better to let go of something glorious
But what choice did we have?
Than hold onto something toxic
Sometimes, it’s better to let go of something glorious
Ripped apart by the world
Than hold onto something toxic
And sewn back together again
Ripped apart by the world
We may have to go our separate ways
And sewn back together again
It’s not what we wanted
Poem Ten ~ Consequences
The night is cold, bitter.
I don’t want to be out here,
with my fingers chattering
more than my teeth.
It’s sticky in the shower;
I decided to mix
Head & Shoulders with
my sweat and blood.
Addiction gnaws at my wallet.
I have two children at home;
the eldest gets mad when
we’re 30 minutes late to school.
My youngest started drinking
at age fourteen. At sixteen,
he’s a self-proclaimed
alcoholic. What did I do?
Ferguson
There’s a hole in the world
I feel like someone should have told me
Someone should have known
There’s a hole in the world
And it reaches so far down
Into me
Into you
We should have been warned,
When we were forced into this world
We should have been warned
that there was a hole burrowing deep
into the darkest places
the darkest spaces
There’s a hole in the world
That no light can penetrate
Where it doesn’t matter that justice is supposed to be blind
because the rest of us are too
But not by choice
Never by choice
There’s a hole in the world and we’re all falling into it
Where the silence is more terrifying than the noise
and the noise is more terrifying than the silence
Where the air is thick with a choking fog
and the children will cry
and the children will die
There’s a hole in the world
Its people are breaking
and broken
There’s a hole in the world
there’s a hole
A Man Who Loves His Dog
My dog stays home while everyone is gone.
She sits around and waits
For us to return.
But some people are kinder.
I know a man who loves his dog
Beyond measure.
He takes his dog to day care
Every day.
And picks him up on his way home from work.
This man loves his dog
So much that he will take
That extra step
To make sure he is happy
All day long.
splish
the girl child came early to church
to help prepare the sanctuary
place the candles
put the ribbons into the book in the right places
place flowers in vases for the altar
she vacuumed and swept
even used Windex and newspaper on the stained glass windows that were low enough for her to reach
she pulled the empty silver insert out of the baptismal font
filled it with water
and brought it to the priest for a blessing
for that is how holy water gets its holiness,
but
the priest bent down
took the silver bowl of water from the girl child
and asked her to bless the water,
and the priest;
the girl child placed both of her hands into the water
and began to splash
and smile
and the blessing words that she spoke were,
“thank you, God, thank you”
and the splashing holy water landed on the girl child, and the priest, and the altar, and more
Boardwalk
Boardwalk
I never could have dreamed
of craggy snow peaked mountains
as the matter of fact backdrop
to the lakes and rivers of the west.
The skyscrapers that defined tall
would be a speck against them.
And the boardwalk that I trek almost
daily along Bellingham Bay
reminds me that I’m free
from childhood chains and expectations
city streets with altercations
smoggy skies like fabrications
and a life lived on cement.
Once I hitched away
from a place I couldn’t stay.
Did a hippie form of a ballet
from trashcan alleys
and their decay.
I see a boardwalk in a picture
by a lake that is a mixture
of rugged mountains and a walkway
like a doorway from dismay.
And when I got here
the world said play.
Now I Believe in Friendship
‘I am so lucky
to have a friend like you
It sounds cliche
but feels so true
Because you love me
and you make me feel it
I can start to believe
there is some truth in it
When I need support you all but come blasting through the wall
like a superhero or the Kool-Aid man
“I’M HERE” you are here and you wont let me forget
nor can i, not anymore
If I can make you feel as cherished
as you’ve made me believe I am
I will have completed my life’s purpose
But luckily I don’t have your gifts,
so we’ve got many decades of adventures ahead.
I’ll do my best.