Memories

3:00 A. M. Whistle

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3:00 a.m., the whistle blows hauntingly through a thick still night. 

I thought, how it is a reassuring sound from the past to the present,

Makes everything seem normal or at least safe as normal should feel.

The darkness allows you to pretend the sound is being made frimg_2958-2om anytime.

Time of the little brick house with wasp escaping through the stone fireplace.

Or, an infant crying to be fed and nurtured back to sleep.  

Or, the present time, the darkness allowed my thoughts to travel.

The sound allowed my mind to go on into the memories of any time before.

Sounding one last time, it disappears into nothingness and all is quiet.

Just the darkness. left from minutes past 3:00 a.m. 

Copyrighted:  2017 CMM

Four Poster Bed

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That four poster bed and me at the foot…

was the beginnings of beginnings

and the irony it took.

My Mother’s plight to come back home,

when our Father’s fights,

were all we had known.

Grandparents adjusting

and opening their doors,

no one needed to sleep on the floor.

The nights we laid, kittens in bed,

me at the foot,

as they snuggled at the head.

Quilts laid busy acoss us just right,

four poster jammed,

with three quite a sight.

As we grew older and given each a bed,

I will never forget the four poster bed,

me at the foot and they at the head.

I wonder in life when all things askew

and the trials I endured

whether old or renewed.

If being at the foot of this bed

gave me the will to survive,

in keeping my head.

© CMM 2002

Keat’s Rose

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Keats spoke of a rose and how it would not wilt.

This rose came only once and was not made of silk.

PIcked among a garden this one unique rose,

taken from the thorns, this flower she chose.

Sat upon his desk, and nurtured from the stems,

drenched in water, cut in a vase, and looking back at him.

He called the rose loveliest of any in his fences,

this rose compared to others, they had no defenses.

However the secret of this rose was not from one attending.

The secret of its beauty was truly from its sending.

This rose he said was more because a friend gave way,

now the beauty of the perfect rose was given to him today.

Swelling powdered scents flowed in the house and settled,

crimson velvet sculptured rose, green stem among the petals.

Beauty in its temporal form in nature’s moment bloomed,

eternal rose, deep within was nurtured to the tomb.

copyrighted:  2007

Paradox

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I enter into today with the celebration of loss and love —ed9ca-photo-218

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

Clothesline

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She remembers the clothesline just off the kitchen window.

 

Lined against the bushes of lilacs all blooming in the spring.

 

Straight lines of coiled wire touching brown decaying wood post.

 

Each week she would see the lady of the house hang lovely colors,

 

different shapes and sizes of shirts and pants and little girl’s dresses.

 

Blues would mix with the pinks and reds, but the whites were always

 

separate from the others so not to allow the dye to run on them. 

 

Deep in the summer south the hot wind would bend and sway

 

against the flag of colors left out to dry until right before afternoon sun.

 

She then would gather them and fold and lay them in a straw basket

 

bringing them into the house; the smell would be of the out of doors.

copyrighted:  2016 CMM

Waking

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I hope I will always wake in tulip sunshine
among the fragrance of green grass
growing near flowing rivers
while breakfast sizzles in
cast iron skillets
with biscuits
on cobalt
blue
plates.
If this
goes away
in my memory
and leaves me for
another day in changed
places, I want to still wake
in tulip sunrise and still smell
the coffee brew to another time but let
not the reciting bobwhites forget to sound; so I will always remember.
copyright: CMM 2005

Friends For LIfe

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I shared with her my plans and schemes,

 

she shared with me her hopes and dreams.

 

 

Together we grew and then apart,

 

but apart we never forgot the start.

 

 

The start of what would one day be

 

a friendship for life, as we look back to see.

 

 

Mistakes we made and mountains we climbed,

 

didn’t take away the precious times.

 

 

We had when we were young and foolish,

 

dressed in hippie and rock style goolish.

 

 

Play house tucked between two trees,

 

went from ‘make believe’ to club house fees.

 

 

Cokes spilt as it fizzed to the top,

 

not being able to find the mop.

 

 

Burning pots in our effort to cook,

 

parents stood and trembled and shook.

 

 

The skating rink, and many a miles

 

as we skated and danced with youthful smiles.

 

 

The teen club, with all its rocking songs,

 

giving us a sense that we belonged.

 

 

Belonged of a generation confused from war,

 

with racial strife the turmoil we bore.

 

 

Our days became families and then children to rear,

 

the days we lived, the battles we feared.

 

 

From growing up in uncertain times,

 

didn’t seem to change or deter our minds.

 

 

From returning to what was always to be

 

a friend close in time we’d see.

 

 

The treasures of childhood, the journey or strife

 

is always best accompanied by a friend for life.

 

 

copyright: CMM 2005running early

Summer Dreams

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A little boy sits quietly at his desk
the summer breeze blows the curtain
from the window pane…

He has become unaware of the snapping of the clothes
on the line from the hot Midwest breeze,
the distant trains breaking the sounds as they clack through towns.

He fingers his baseball glove, following his imagination,
of diamonds that glitter from home runs
and glistens from sunsets after loaded bases.

The smell of leather takes him to locker rooms,
sounds of cheers with
the snapping this time of baseball bats hitting the ball.

Symphony sounds that make up dreams
that feed the body and soul of the little boy
at his desk, freckled face; looking past.

Past the ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ lamp sitting on his desk,
past the plaid sheets spreading his bed,
past the books that pile in waiting for homework.

He imagines all sounds real with promises;
“What a home run that was!”
“What a pitcher I am!”

Swirling winds of dreams of a little boy
at his desk, in his room,
in the Midwest…dreaming baseball.

Copyrighted: 2001 CMM

(Dedicated to a friend who played in the Minor Leagues, wrote of baseball and ethics.
RIP 2012.  Also, to my son who loved the game of baseball.