PurrGirl

Two years ago today
she passed away… too young
terrible how long it takes
tears to dry.

I know I know…
she was ‘just’ a cat.
No. She wasn’t.
She was PurrGirl.

No better cat ever lived.

 

May Morning

Photo by Ichiro “Mike” Asao

Through the fog I see
sunshine streaming through the trees.
Dawn’s filtered triumph.

 

Mother’s Day

Bobbi June
so many selves contained within
your singular lovely body:
daughter, sister, student,
equestrian, pianist, skier,
artist, model, poet,
calligrapher, baker, knitter,
storyteller and historian,
listener extraordinaire,
friend to many, wife to one.

To me you were simply
Mother, Mommy, Mom
who gave me life and form,
nurtured me, loved me
exalted me beyond reason
or attainable reality, while
inspiring me to be my best
never seeing in me anything less.

Too many years now
I have missed you,
every single day, missing you.
Your lifetime now ephemeral moments
trusted to this ethereal memory.
So I touch these photos of you,
trace with my finger your smile,
wrap myself in your knitted afghan,
reread your letters, your cards,
everything you touched made special
by your abiding love still present.
Our mother-daughter bond
as enduring as gravity, beyond death,
my life, my heart, my soul
a part of you…
just one singular unique part
of your multifaceted person
who all others knew simply as
Bobbi June.

Mother and I
February 1953
Miami Beach, FL

First Goldfinch arrives (April 15, 2013)

Auriferous prince of the feathered domain alights on the bird feeder, settles on its perch and dines. Delighting with the suddenness of this arrival, I stop and watch the season’s first male goldfinch. On this chilly, damp, gray day, when earlier the sparrows and doves blended in, nearly invisible against their surroundings, commonplace though dear, this welcomed guest brings an infusion of sunglow feathers with calligraphic black-striped wings.  He, so small in size yet grand in scope to these eyes, illuminates my moment, makes real the ideal of spring.

***

One week later… 

… ‘tweets’ were posted, evidently:  good eats here!

Spring’s Vagaries

After many days where blue warmth and sun glazed skies
intoned a radiance to the hours
a grayness now settles over
this freshly bloomed earth.
The air, windless but quite cold,
speaks of a former season
we thought long departed.

A lone house finch sits rooted
to an Escallonia branch
his head swiveling
in every direction,
as if to say,
“What happened? Where’d Spring go?”

Don’t worry little bird
Spring has merely stepped into the shower.
See? Feel the gentle spray from the sky!
And soon she’ll return, ‘dressed to the nines’
to attend the premiere of Summer.

Photograph courtesy of:
http://robinsdaily.wordpress.com/