FRIDAY

Enduring minutes

Saturday’s promise beckons

Patient as a cloud


(Mom felt a little left out, so she composed a haiku of her own, claiming it had been 40 years since she's written any poetry at all. Pretty good for someone who claims to be that rusty, no?)

Caretaker

And in my most brilliant of moments

While forgetting unanswered emails

And dodging the dialing of your phone number

I am busy building the most beautiful ode to love I can muster

I am engulfed in soil while I pull the weeds from our bed like they are umbilical chords

Leading to the birthing of our new form

While you fight borders and create homes

I can only think of us and what we will become

You are oblivious while I mop the floors

Scrub the toilet

Decorate your room

You are unaware of what love is

So you do whatever you need to keep yourself distracted

Yes, I could become what they always do

Forgotten lovers who turn to anger or apathy

But too long have I been intoxicated with resentment

It is empty and only makes my belly swell like a starved child

And apathy leaves us dry like the river that used to cross-section fertile plains

No, I instead hunger for genuine beauty that does not hide behind shadows

Where friends rejoice over new lovers

Build a bonfire to worship the hopes and dreams of the future

While sacrificing forever to be here now

You will come home

You will lament being away

Forgetting all of the beautiful things you have been doing

You will long for what we had as lovers

Who we were will be gone

But you will say

“I am glad he has been taking care of this friendship while I have been away.”