Mother's Day At A Remove
Twenty-five years since Mama passed
and I wonder now
about all the baby shoes she held
How quick and full her joys
and how a child’s falls
never come to an end in such a heart
She knew mother wit helps most
when served with seafood and music
Gentle misdirection
How redeeming the rhythm
of the ladle caress
how loud kitchens quicken a healing
People have a spirit age
One child is a dour 70 years old by 15
An adult in the airport is seven years old
(Your sibling knows your age)
I imagine Rose in a sturdy catboat
A teen free to chance waves
Water-vital and patient with rope
Smiling into the criss-cross of gossiping winds
Alive to the lapping waves on hull
Every sail in the time of this world teaches something
Every sail
In the snug distance between mother and child
Every sail
Even across the long evening light of a distant shore