Poetry Thursday

Here's something that I was inspired to write from something my mom told me not long ago. It's still in its infancy, but I thought I'd post it here and see how you all respond... (I'm reposting it because for some reason if you save a draft and then publish it, it publishes back on the date you saved the draft, not the date you are publishing!)


in my mother's garden
of a saturday afternoon
come face to face
with a ghost

she tells me
she's received a letter

what would you do
if he wanted to come back
she asks

leaning back,
dig palms into earth
to ground me
grab handfulls of grass
else my heart will run
escape
far from here
away from the memory of a time when "I" was "we"

blink back tears
a grounded goldfish
gulping air
step into a flowerbed
waist high in grasses and wildflowers
among lazy lady bugs,
creamy butterfly eggs
shimmering on flowerheads

tug
stubborn weeds
pulling up large clumps of earth
dirt raining onto sandal-clad toes
lazy bumble bees bumble by
weed the garden into order

until my heart stills

this is where I come when I am lonely she says
and I finally understand what she means