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Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Advent

Advent
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That son drove miles home from college, as our advent returns.
Three on the tree, rust in cab, all weather tires drives us places.
Traditions change, first I'm not hosting holiday, bringing dishes.
The anticipation stirs a joyful; there's no Pinterest recipe for this.
To go ahead, look back, mountain lion mauled deer on the stones.
Thyme, sage, and basil  - smoke fills house - cause bees distress.
Table places set. No soot, no charcoal, no fire spark on wind pants.
Thanksgiving with other family moves away from  dis-functions. 
Talented sibling says: liar!  Where truck keys?  Escape bell rings.
 Through divorce struggle, insurance more than college payments.
Take off in open gown when radiologist sighs  before surgeries.
Tap clean windows for seashell echo of newsprint vinegar seas.
Tail of raven twitches on doe carcass, he knows where cabin lies.
Turn on mud flood road, skate to sanctuary for rare butterflies. 
Talents to ignore with silence, never show for its not anxieties.
Take lover who treats your core as not as chosen, not pretties.
To return after prison spell, dig up clover seeds in coffee cans.
Though means well, confess sins, forgot to cover mouse traps.
Those excuses...
Today start over, walk those open hearts.
These hands ready, Mailed blankets to Fort Yates.
Time to listen, hope and be kinder begins.
Thus prepare the robbed, shunned, and lonely for festivities. 
The list ahead is full of jobs, jot notes in the phone to pages.
The King comes.



Advent Poem
Copyright Caroline Gerardo November 27, 2016
Photograph I took at Flannery O'Conner's home

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Flood


Blue and white dishes that were in the secretary
Life's messy.
Tragedy with daughter lead into Christmas Season

The beginning of my holiday.

"No harm," I kept chanting-
After finishing I went to bed early.
Around two in the morning a hissing sound woke me.
Carson was gone skiing and Blair in Colorado.
Perhaps it was only the wind.
Honey (our elderly Golden Retriever)  started 
howling - this of course engaged the pack coyotes
in the canyon.
There was no moon.
I went downstairs with a baseball bat.
A slugger wasn't the proper tool.
First step down, icy wet-
The whole downstairs was filled with an inch of water.
I ran out front in a white gauzy nightgown 
to turn the main off.
Then my flood cleanup began...
I'm writing a book about drought and the irony
made me keep on track from crying.
Why waste the liquid?
Without running water I hosted family Christmas dinner.
I gave a toast about persevering.
Dinner was grand.
A flood is not going to get me down.
I'm a good swimmer.
How was your holiday?