Stephanie
My Gaelic daughter,
A child of grace.
A spirited heart,
An angelic face.
Fears of a mother
Go ahead of her steps.
No greater joy,
Her pain is kept.
Walk among the clover,
Feed under the thatch.
Angels go as you rover .
A lassie of no match.
Copyrighted © 2018 CMM
Paradox
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
October Remembrance (Breast Cancer Month)
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
Invitation
let’s have a conversation
no, not a wish list to reply
let’s go somewhere and listen
we can laugh or we can cry
let’s stop and say nothing
or just smell the air around
let’s have a conversation
or never make a sound
what is really of value
is you are here for me
and I am always seeking
to have a conversation
a time to sit and be…
Copyrighted: CMM 2016
Tears
Round
and
warm,
falling softly with
emotion. To come with plenty,
only to quickly go away. The taste is
as salty as the sea; the nature as unpredictable,
understood only by you. It is not your duty
to carry the burden, nor light of joy.
Moist blessing to each of us—
You are important,
You are
My
Tears.
copyrighted: CMM 1998
Awarded: Honors, Fields of Earth Symposium
Cape Fear Writers
The Last Poem
(written by a friend who lost his battle with cancer)
(RIP Jan. 2011)
I have started to cry
causing tears up over my eyes,
but few come out.
A silence spreads
a bit of waiting for new breath,
my face looks up again.
It passes,
tears wiped away,
it passes.
© July 17, 2009
