Only a Locket, Never for Wendy, Picnic,
3 Poems on Loss/Lost
Only a locket *
It was only a little thing
they told me – again and
again – not worth much at
all – replaceable in any low
end jewelry store – They’d
buy me another – Another –
Sweet secure, ignorant young
faces – mystified at grandma’s
tears overflowing the sharp
ruts in soft creases that was
now my metaphormized face
dripping onto my parchment
hands -older now by decades
than my mother’s ever got to
be – It was the remembering –
My mother her smile like a
dream – putting me on that
boat – my name pinned to my
good navy coat – My mother
sea wind whipping her hair
from its pins – clutching me
to her hard as the ship’s horn
blasted – and in an impetuous
fumbling final frantic moment
reaching up -into the tangle of
her hair and unclasping the locket
I had never seen her without –
Pressing pressing it into my hand
closing my fingers around it – as
the crowd surged forward
pressing pressing – that little locket
in my palm – holding it so tightly
that even as the crowd carried me
off with them-as the ship pulled
from shore and all the people dis-
appeared I could still feel its mark
– and the heat of her heart – with
me in the wake of the waves as
a cold wind blew me to America.
* photos are not personal - they are public domain images
~
Never for Wendy
Never for Wendy
In the land of “lost boys”
a little girl could only be
a gentle Wendy suffering
in sweet silence her
subjugated loss of
capturing pirates –
tending the others
and ending with a
needle and thread
still sewing shadows
~
~
Picnic
It was a family circle picnic
there were faces never seen
children running in circles
in the dappled summer sun
to the lake where I was for-
bidden and so,wandered on
a winding path through cool
trees -light filagreed through
-barefoot – and dreamy and –
three – the clatter chatter of
their voices fading to bird-
song and then vanished and
there I was –
lost
Love your depiction of the many faces of loss, Pearl. So well written and so evocative. Thank you!
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