Family Tradition

graduation tree
she chose Granny Smith Apple
sweet, sour, pie-love

Stony

pathways to future 
are never perfectly set
and always rocky

cats and roses glow
for days after my birthday 
sunrise and sunset

i need happiness

so i ordered mood-boost tea

maybe a bit much

my students need clothes
and “generosity lives”
is this store’s motto

i made it this far
sometimes that’s all you can say
blooming beginnings

she met my baby
before taking her last breath 
her diamonds shine on

my mother saved them
for her April-birthstone girl
twenty years past pic

my forty-fifth turn
a lily diamond sparkle
saved for twenty years

April in Denver:
sometimes it can be as cold
as a teenager

paint our broken souls
with layers of gold filling
maybe then we win