MEMORIES

I am pleased to remember,

those nights I loved you,

I am scared to count,

the costs of loving you,

How shall I remember?

your first sunny smile

your first faltering step

When you called me Mama?

I am quick to remember,

your first day at school,

your first lessons of love,

How can I not remember?

your first wet kiss

when I kissed your toes

as you stubbed it at life?

I am happy to remember,

when lessons by candle light

we tried to make the grade

as you learned to sharpen

your wit and intellect,

How can I not remember?

as we planned and hoped

that the gold will come

entwined in a joint dream.

I am pained to remember

when you had naught

to remember your need

to make as good a nest as me

you took flight and left

to make nest for another

Now gray and old

from light slumber

I watch the sun golden

In what I’m beholden

now I remember and wonder

as your seed takes steps

from one toothed smile

of sunny wonder

fresh springs of blossoms

a single wet sloppy kiss

an exchange of another age

the word moves to another

‘Granma’ for ‘Mama’.