Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Found Things.

Cleaning out my computer, I found two things I wanted to share: a drawing created by one of my daughters two years ago or so, and a poem I wrote, who knows how old, now. I thought they went well together, and would buy me some time until I can come up with a real blog post! (It's been very, very hard trying to get back into the swing of things after the trip...)

(I touch with my hands. I touch you.)


I've learned so much since you've been away:
the small word,
overlooked,
that marries subject and predicate-
it has a name, as all things do:
it is called a copula.
Infinite ways to be joined,
taken apart, put right again.

I want to think of sweetness, love,
but my heart catches
on the ragged edge of
your absence.

So I have become obsessed
with other things,
the jade sliver of avocado
soft and yielding under my tongue,
the names of groups of animals,
stronger in number
than standing alone -

a pitying of turtle doves,
a gaze of raccoons,
a murder of crows.

This space is an ocean,
an eternity.
It is a comfort and a cruelty
that life goes on in its infinite wonder,
oblivious
to the absence of your honeyed eyes,
to the forgotten taste
of your imperfect mouth.

9 comments:

  1. Hello Maggie:
    Absolutely delightful - both the drawing and the poem, which contains some beautiful images. A lovely start to a wet Wednesday.

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  2. Hello, Lance and Jane:

    My car thermometer told me it was 107F yesterday (41.6C). I wish there was rain...Thank you for your wonderful comments.

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  3. Found things are preferable to lost things.

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  4. Suze: Yes, they are...but loss sometimes teaches us something about strength, if we can get past "clutching the rubble to our chests". :)

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  5. Oh, I didn't say I was PAST clutching the rubble!

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  6. What a wonderful thing to find and then share with us.

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  7. This will absolutely do until you get round to a 'proper' post. If this is the calibre of a hasty in-between post, I can't wait for the planned sort.

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  8. M Pax and Friko: Thank you. Perhaps it is a sign I need to do a bit more digging...

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