Mom, I wonder if you see the star,

one promised long ago.

Is it brighter from time passed

with a constant glow.

Are you closer to the cradle,

of which no time can rot,

This manger scene, of babe

and birth that never is forgotten.

If in heaven you get to see

all the wonders of that night.

I see your smile in all we love,

and I know you are alright.

© CMM  Christmas 2011

Mother’s Christmas

Brown aroma filters through

the porcelain pot wrapped in

a  holiday Christmas print

Tea covey placed around,

Tied at the top with a green ribbon.

Pouring into the cup the sound

of generations past of many pourings,

expressed  within generations,

a knowing of shared time.

The warmth of the spiced tea

brought smiles caused by conversations,

of simpler  relationships in an eloquent

fluent exchange of Christmas gentility.

Christmas 2013 copyrighted: CMM

It was just a drop.

     “What drop?”

     “You know the drop.”

“Tell me, but first tell me why?”

     “Why?”  “We cried.”

      “Because of the drop.”

“What drop!?”

      “One who humanity denied.”

      “Because, it was a drop.”

“Because of the drop?”

      “The brown paper bag.”

      “Matched the drop they denied.”

“But, we still cried.”

     “We still cry.”

      “Each time they deny.”

Copyrighted:  2016  CMM

I enter into today with the celebration of loss and love —

I cherish your bedside as we said good bye and

All I could do is cry

It has been five years and your sweet desperation breathed between two places

Your eyes closed as some said the “Our Father” and others’  dark faces

Posturing, some told lies and some truths; you listened.

Reaching into the depths of the last moments, you closed your eyes

For the last time you pulled from a place we all know only once in time

You called out ” I love you.” The room quieted

copyrighted:  CMM  2016

Hey, that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I’m about.

A date, that’s not what’s great,

What’s great at any rate,

Is the relationship that dictates,

Our friendship that is true…

Hey, that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I am about.

First it’s secrets that are told,

Then its Ferbes that are sold,

We hop in our Trac when told,

For our evening we pursue…

Hey that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I am all about.

As we learn and time will pass,

our parties they’re a gas,

and each other we harass,

the thing remembered will be you…

Hey that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I am all about.

We grow to depend on each other,

and the friendship becomes a brother,

and the bonding like no other,

the separation will soon be due.

Hey that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I am all about.

Hold on to me real tight,

as someday it will feel like night,

because my brother will be out of sight,

remember that, I love you…

Hey that’s how I feel, Hello, that’s what I am all about.

Listen dear friends take my hand,

and wherever you go understand,

there is no ocean and no land,

that memory will subdue…

Hey, that’s how I feel, Hello that’s what “WE” were all about!

(Dedicated to my daughter, and her two high school buddies endearingly called, ‘Brains, Beauty, Brawn’.)

copyrighted:  1999 CMM

I stepped outside the squeaky door

the shower from the full moon explore

As I did I climbed on the wind

Hung on the star light and start to spin

The whirling of the dusty fog

Rose above my head and tug

When light and moon and rays delight

Brought a new and mystical light

To all the planets and stars burst out

The moon and wind poured like a spout

Of dust and sparklers and moon rays

I wanted to ride throughout their stay

But no, the wind died down too soon

And I was left back looking at the moon

Copyrighted:   CMM  2016

The fields have turned golden

the wheat now bundles in rolls

the sweet rain of autumn

will soon take its tolls

while color begins to grace

the tree line with color

the golds and the russet

the browns and yellow

I listen out to the souls who

pass into the place of places

where no one returns

and awareness erases

oh the changes of time

spread before in  splatter

to explain the passing

we ignore what matters

that autumn just is, what we

try not to see, the passing

of time, the reminder of seasons

when the colors bleed

copyrighted:  CMM  2016

I watched a friend take her last breath today.

We prayed, ‘Hail Mary’ and the “Our Father’

Then she passed…

I miss her terribly.

Unfair, at least to my understanding now.

Unfair to me.

She was fried chicken,

Hometown laughter,

Short streets.

She was “riding around”,

Coca cola,

Music on the radio.

We talked of ‘new loves’,

With new hopes,

As we shared our dreams.

She was simpler times,

Long phone calls,

Sharing all…

She was late night rescue,

Stranded from dates

Gone bad.

She was laughter at oddity

Of pregnant bodies

And invisible feet…

She was death,

The painful recognition of

The ugliness of disease…

She was the beauty

Of the spirit, shinning past

All the let-downs of cancer…

She was a lifetime friend

You never ask for,

Only recognize a lifetime late…

As I sit by her bed,

Watching her breath,

And my tears are for me.

Copyrighted:   2016 CMM

Wet morning sand stick to my feet

while brown seaweed breaks into my path.

I travel to my beginnings toward the sea.

Watchful without pretention or notice

sounds of waves crashing and wind blushing

past me, as I step into the path.

On the shores morning and evening meet always.

Reflection of all time before me, and after me,

will continue long after my footprints are no longer

wet to my feet; deep into my path.

Copyrighted:  2016 CMM