BECAUSE HE LOVED HER SO

He asked her to teach him all she knew about music….

it was something he didn’t know

not because he loved music

but because she loved it so.

FINGERPRINTS ON OUR SCREEN

Over the weekend our two youngest grandchildren came to our house to stay

(the two older ones no longer live at home and their parents were away).

We laughed, we ate, we walked, we danced

they played on our computer in between

and we noticed, after we returned them home,

they’d left their fingerprints on its screen.

And when we saw their fingerprints we sighed

thinking how the moments they now stay with us are few…

how they’ve grown up so quickly…

Wasn’t it only yesterday when they were 2?

With the two older grandchildren off at college

and the the two youngest growing fast

we try our best, when we get together,

to make each moment last…

Their lives now take them in different directions 

to different places…new routines

and we wait patiently with net in hand…

to capture moments in between…

Which is why we have decided to preserve 

this latest moment in between…

to make it last a little longer…

and keep their fingerprints on our screen.

HIS HEROISM

They asked the old soldier to talk about his heroism…

explain that medal on his chest.

“It wasn’t that I was brave.” he said,

“just a little less frightened than the rest.”

CAPTURE A MEMORY

She often wondered why her grandma stopped so often on their walks

stopped…

looked all around…

then smiled

Why her face would suddenly brighten 

with the innocence of a child.

Why she would close her eyes for a moment

for a moment without talking

and when she opened them again she’d smile

smile 

and continue walking.

One day she found the courage to ask her

ask her why she acted this way

her answer is the reason

she walks like her grandma did 

today…

“Time moves by so quickly,” she told her

“moments moving swiftly in front of me…

so occasionally I like to take time out 

and capture a memory.”

WHAT DO WE DO?

When we are sad the tears we form can be healing and satisfying…

What do we do when he have no tears left

but we haven’t finished crying?

Another person with a gun killing unsuspecting folks….

This latest one in California…at a bar in Thousand Oaks…

Each new shooting spree fails to bring us together

in fact it tears us more asunder… 

as again we cry for the victims

as again we’re left to wonder…

With each new murder of the masses

With each new innocent dying…

What do we do when we have no tears left

but we haven’t finished crying?

It saddens me to see the sorrow on each face

of those affected by this massacre

in this new time…

in this new place…

But knowing this is not the last time this will happen between our shores…

knowing this has become routine…

saddens me…

even more.

What do we do when faced with a reality

we have trouble justifying?

What do we do when we have no tears left

but we haven’t finished crying?

AS A STADIUM DANCED

He came to redefine the silence…

and of their emotions…they quickly lost control

so they closed their eyes

they sang…

they waved their hands up in the air

and they let his music fill their souls…

And for a moment they will remember forever 

they felt the power of music to enhance…

as the rhythm beat deep within their hearts

and they watched…

as a stadium danced.

HE WRITES

He writes of love…

of friends…

of family…

and he is the first one to concede…

not because they are all he has

but because they are all he needs.