Sunday, January 23, 2022

Burning My Yearnings

 
—Poetry and Photos by Ann Privateer, Davis, CA
 


GRATITUDE FOR GRANDPAS

Who let me hang out
With them
While they fixed things

One worked at the zoo
Before retiring
One was a street cleaner

Though I learned these
Two facts long after
They were gone

One taught me to
Strike a match
One taught me to

Use tools while all
The girls worked
In the kitchen.

____________________

GRANDMA

Grandmother's breasts
Spilled into her arms
They collided
With my tiny head

As she smoothed
My hair and caressed
My shoulders
All at once I felt

Protected and unafraid
Her hands gave me
Confidence. 
 
 
 
 


HEAVEN BOUND

Contentment
Lives in churches
Hides in hills
Thanks the thankless
For beautiful days
Together or apart
When day is done
But not forgotten.

___________________

HIGHWAYS

Get me up and running
Early and busy because
I did not know my home
Could disappear
Into the future
Where highways are
Concealed.
 
 
 

 
 
MY PLACE

I’m burning my yearnings
for love and fame, stop
wondering if the stock market 
crashed and incendiary
cash went down the drain, life
is by chance, we die alone;
lately I’m beginning to depend
more on trees. 
 
 
 

 

ALSO

in another place far from
my domicile, a patriarchy
with a different face
and nonstop work that
doubts their elders’ place.

________________________

Today’s LittleNip:


We do not remember days, we remember moments.

—Cesare Pavese

________________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Davis resident Ann Privateer for today’s fine poems and for her photos of the lovely little hamlet of Davis, California!
 
 
 
—Public Domain Photo Courtesy of 
Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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