Mama by Rebecca Kahlsdorf

I am three years old
We are rocking in a brown recliner
a lock of your hair
between my thumb and forefinger
I like the sound the strands make
when I rub them
back and forth
twisting on
the pads of my tiny hands

Four years
blowing in your ear
to make you laugh
You sing me sad lullabies
about babies lost in the woods
and pretty horses
Your voice is soft
and close

Five years
I am in your arms
My feet dangling to your knees
You smell like White Shoulders perfume
I am safely nuzzled in your neck

Safest here

I am twenty-eight

My six year old
calms himself
by holding a pinch of skin
on my neck
between his thumb and forefinger
He blows in my ear
to make me laugh

My daughter
cries for me
having hurt herself
doing something I warned her
not to

I summon the tenderness
of your voice
folding her into my arms

I want her to be
safest here

My aching arms
have finally rocked
this precious baby to sleep

I call upon my memory
Find you in your perfect gentleness
and lay him down
slowly
peacefully
moving just the way
I imagine
you would
Mama

Just the way you would.

For James by Rebecca Kahlsdorf

In the darkness
of the early morning
I wake to your
hungry cry
leaving the warmth
of my bed

Even through
my exhaustion
it is good to see
your little face again
as you drink your fill;
stroke your plump cheek,
your dimpled fingers
wrapped around mine

I sway,
breathing in
your milky scent
and the weight
of your body
succombs
again
to sleep

It isn't difficult
to believe
you are dreaming
of heaven
behind those
feathery lashes...

New from its
gates

an angel
in my arms.

The Missing Piece by Sarah

She awoke with a start. Her dream that was so clear just seconds ago was quickly dissolving into incoherent fragments. Running through trees; being in an empty concert hall; trying to find something. Looking at the clock, she marveled that she had only been asleep a quarter of an hour. How could a dream taking place over many hours occur in just a few minutes of actual sleep time? Such a puzzle. Where did her mind go, when she dreamed, that was so disconnected from time in the real world?

There was that sound again. That sound that had awoken her. She peered into the living room and saw the cat batting futilely, trying to reach a catnip mouse. She scooted the chair from the wall to retrieve the mouse, and saw something stuck to the wall. Ah, the missing piece of the wooden airplane that had been missing for months. Without this piece, the plane would not fly straight.

She put the piece back onto the airplane and gave it a toss.

New set of random things

Here is a new set of random things:
-Quarter
-Puzzle
-Dream

Happy writing!

Road Trip by Gina

Sitting on the couch
Thoughts sweet as sugar cookies
Dreaming up a road trip
Excited voices soaring like hawks
Drifting on the breeze