Only Once

snowy transition
 back into reality
 of colored lights
 
 countdown to Christmas
 begins with old-enough girls
 who now string the tree
 
 where did the time go?
 (when on the Polar Express
 we sipped hot cocoa)
 
 with these bright sparkles
 another year of youth gone
 like flakes from the sky
 
 

Cry Babies

realization:
i’m halfway through motherhood
(though it never ends)

ten-year-old letter
brought me back to those first days
late-night crying babes

but ten years from now?
they’ll all be out of the house
i’ll cry, my babies

when i open it
will my heart be sad, or lost
or, at best, hopeful?

will i be relieved
to think of my youngest girl
sitting in my lap?

or devastated
because she no longer will?
oh how i love them

but i’m halfway through
they’re better skiers than me
(and everything else)

no more crying babes
just the lust for lost moments
that hurt us then, now

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/80f/11233611/files/2015/01/img_7116.jpg