Soft Petals

our road trip return:
too many blossoms to count
(spring inside the house)

even outside blooms
just planted last September 
have welcomed us home

Burned Trees and Snow

Colorado roads:
beautiful mountain vistas
scarred by wildfires

javelina hike 
to a cactus-filled Thumb Butte
to start the morning

a Whiskey Row lunch
Watson Lake under blue skies
for the afternoon

my daughter’s new friends 
soon to be her new roommates:
a perfect evening

Monument Valley:
the perfect sunrise rest stop
to light our faces

snow at Grand Canyon:
surprise bucket list side trip
to catch her snowfall

all three together:
it feels like a bucket list
to let them g(r)o(w)

a new Corona 
three years after quarantine 
back to wilderness

girls’ trip for spring break 
to collect our Subaru 
and meet our sister

miracle arches 
connect the past and future 
with hope for this life

your bucket list waits
for a ‘delicate’ sunset,
a breathtaking arch

your children await
at the top of a boulder 
with the perfect view

a lifetime awaits
at the end of vacation 
yet memories last

dock spider, mud, fish;
a small hardwood forest hike 
to a man-made lake

you can feel the joy
seeping through this perfect view
of nature, reborn

lakes are in my blood. 
i learned to swim in one
and love nothing more

through Cumberland Gap
we drive down to Tennessee 
and stand in three states

it’s been many years
(the gap between visits here)
and everything’s changed

Pappy’s room is new
with the antique furniture 
from their grandparents

a whole new kitchen 
to fill Donna’s empty nest
with the light of love

this generation 
will take the time to teach them
and fill in the gaps

they’ll learn who came first,
what they fought for, what they lost;
close gaps, open eyes