Overslept

Holding hands with friends and family. Sometimes oversleeping helps to bring things to the surface.

We overslept three times

This morning

Awakened to wonder

How to join hands

With the larger pieces

Of things

Which

Of course

Are so much larger

Than we know.

Every time

We awakened,

We named the dream

And

Whose hands

We held.

The circle

Was so much larger.

I wonder

If we oversleep

Four times

Five times

A million

What it will bring

Us.

Darn home

I think I know what home is. I don't. Even more, I don't. Even though it's been over a year since I've had a seizure, and the medications seem to be right. I still don't know where I'll wake up. Darn home.

Where is home?

It appears new

Every day.

I would like

It to stay

In one place.

I work

To make it so.

Make it so

Please

Make it so.

Still it moves

Darn home

I never know

Where you will be

When I wake up

I think I know

Where you are

When I go to sleep.

Darn home

Changed again.

Spirit animal

Adventures at NIH

As I walk the halls

Of the hospital
My stuffed sloth
In the front
Of my walker,
The British woman
Asks me
If she
Is my spirit animal.
Oh no
 I reply
This is Rosemary.
My spirit animal
is a black panther.
Pleased to meet you,
Rosemary,
She says.
We continue
To walk

Past the nurse’s station.

Wheelchair professionals

More airport adventures, There are professionals for everything, I wonder if there is special training for wheelchair professionals.

My beloved

Was not allowed

To wheel me

In the airport.

I’m sorry sir

That is only for

The wheelchair professionals.

I’m sorry sir

You must show

Your ID

To the wheelchair professionals.

Meanwhile

Meanwhile

Meanwhile

I stood in my braces

In the security container.

The wheelchair professionals

Made sure

I wheeled through.

My beloved and I

Came out

The other side.

My beloved and I

Got on

The plane.

Chinks

I am not happy with this. Or maybe happy is not the right word. I have resisted writing about this. I did not title it walls or wailing because it seems I might use those titles for another reflection. Still, it seemed I should write something. So this is it for today. My something.

Walls:

The wall demolished

Which made Germany

One.

The Wailing Wall

Oh yes

The Wailing Wail

It allows

Well…wailing.

If we build another wall

Either from one side

Or the other

No matter who

Pays for it.

If good fences

Make good neighbors

As the poet maintained

The neighbor piece

The good piece

Still means we have to see

Our neighbor,

As the Germans did

With family

On both sides.

We wail

We are so familiar

With walls.

We build them

All the time.

We put prayers

In the chinks.

There are always

Chinks.

There are always

Prayers.

And always

May we wail.

No more adventures

With laughter comes deeper comprehension.

He tells me

“No more adventures.”

My beloved says

“How dare he”

“How dare he

Label your hospital stays

Adventures?

Your falls

Adventures?

Each one

Does indeed bear a note

Of tragedy.

Each one

Might have been

Prevented.

I see

Each one’s point.

I have to laugh.

With laughter

Comes deeper

Comprehension.

No more adventures

As if

I set out

Like Robin Hood

Every day.

Every walk around the block

Is an adventure.

I have to laugh.

With laughter

Comes deeper

Comprehension.

Fledgling

Only a few more perennials to plant: milkweed, bee balm. Then I think we're done. Meanwhile the kitten watches the robin.

The fledgling robin

Figures out

What he needs

To eat

Spreads his wings

Fluffs his tail

Scores a linden berry

An ant

A dirt bath.

Looks pleased

A few spots

Left

On his chest.

The bare garden spots

Are his

Until he figures out

How

To fly south.

On to the next thing

Here we go. Digging up dirt around the fountain, adding mushroom compost, planting bee balm for the bees, butterfly weed and milkweed, and some grasses we found at the nursery.

On to the next thing

Perennials around the fountain

Lavender and grasses

A few Echinacea.

They should have been planted

Last week

But thanks be to God

It poured rain

On Thursday

So they held off

Wilting

For the weekend.

Now it’s time.

Mission

Every day has its mission. Some are more interesting than others. We are trying to decide who will be our next roofer. As I said, some missions are more interesting than others. The roof mission is before the new shutter mission.

The mission for today

Is to scope out

A roof in Bartlett.

I wonder if they will know

We are not prowlers

There

To stake out

Their home

But are only there

To see their roof:

Its style

Its composition

Its pitch

Its color.

Will they know?

Will they even

Be home?

And if they notice

Will they care?

I don't want to do this anymore

Nothing will be a favorite with everyone.

The preschool

Offered many activities.

One day they dipped their feet

In black paint

Walked across newsprint.

The teacher

Carefully wrote

What each one said

About the experience

On their newsprint

“it’s wet”

“It’s squishy”

“It’s cold”

My favorite:

“I don’t want to do this anymore”

Grease traps

Everyone, everything, has his or her own field of expertise.

My beloved

Is the church expert

On grease traps.

I never knew

Such things existed

Before

Knowing him.

These are no

Mere drains.

The kitten

Is the house expert

On catching flies.

Not just any flies

But house flies

And pantry moths.

Her eyes pick up

A wide range

Of flying things.

We watch them

Together.

I am not as interested

In grease traps.

Connector

I have never seen "connection" on any list of spiritual gifts. Nonetheless, it seems to be one of mine,

Everyone is gifted.

My gift seems to be

Getting people connected

One with another.

Oh you need a place

To work?

I say

Oh you have a job?

I say

Oh you have an office?

I say

Perfect.

Possible connection made.

On to the next one.

Survival

My siblings and I learned to shoot up north at the cabin. It was not my favorite activity. I have never liked loud noises

My father

Took survival

Seriously.

We all learned

How to shoot and clean

A gun.

Guns were not toys.

Guns were never meant

To be taken lightly.

Guns were not meant

For hunting.

My father built

A fallout shelter

Before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

My father took survival

Seriously.

We learned from him

The world spins

Everything moves,

On days such as these

I watch the sun

Move

In and out

Behind the clouds

When really it’s the clouds

That move

Or maybe it’s me

That changes position.

On days such as these

Everything moves

Even me

With compromised feet.

On days

On all days

The world spins

The clouds move.

Older

It's all relative

I am older.

You’ll notice I didn’t say

Old.

It’s relative

After all.

Older means

I take the color test

On the Internet

And test age 87

So I take it again

And test age 25.

I am actually

In between.

Such tests

Like IQ tests

Are meant for fun.

To be sure

Some days I feel 87

And some days

I wake up

25.

Flow

I was first introduced to Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi in an introduction to psychology class at the local community college. He described the term flow coupling it with imagination. I have been grateful ever since.

Like the river

Like the stream

Like the rivulets

In the garden bed,

Like the words

On the page

Which might prefer

To be left inside

But insist their way

Out

Instead.

Flow, I say,

Flow.

There is no way

Not

To flow,

Not

To be left

Behind

But insist their way

Down

And out

Like the river

Like the stream

Like the rivulets

Like the words.

Whistle

I wonder if grandparents live on farms anymore. A whistle might scare the cows.

Someone gave the child

Behind us

A whistle

For the 4^th of July.

We think it was

A grandparent

Who ate potato salad

And left.

The whistle stayed behind.

We think

It will be wrapped

For the next trip

To the grandparent’s farm

Only to be discovered

With joy

When the child unpacks

His luggage.

Psalms in translation

In a class on the Psalms people asked whether the new Prayer Book would have a new translation of the Psalms. Probably...I said...probably. Language is always in the process of change. We cling to old familiar things.

Are there people at work

On new translations

Of the psalms?

Who are they?

Are they people

Of deep prayer?

Do they care

About deer panting

For streams of water?

Or Lord

You have searched me out

And known me?

Is the Lord

Their shepherd

I ask you

Is the Lord

Their shepherd?

Do they walk

Through the valleys

Of the shadows of death

With Him?

With Her?

Firecrackers

In honor of Keith and Leo who didn't like loud noises either

More milkshakes

Because it is a holiday

And how else

To really celebrate.

I am not

A loud noise person.

The kitten doesn’t like them

Either.

We are on the same page

Here.

The gray tabby

Sleeps

Through everything.

Ah the 4^th

Or the 2^nd

Or the 3^rd

Of July

More milkshakes

The proper way

To celebrate.

After the milkshakes

Years ago we had a sphinx moth visit the nicotiana. Amazing creature.

After the milkshakes

We made a dent

In the garden store

Included a pink flamingo

With a spring

On its neck.

Today we plant

The perennials

Bee balm

Et al.

Annuals

For the front pots

Nicotiana in hopes

The sphinx moth

Will return.

It’s late

To garden

But still

Never too late

I say.