5 poems in 5 days - Day 5

It's the final day of the poetry challenge I have been participating in on Facebook as well as here. Today's poem was written a couple of years ago about events more than 19 years ago. It was published last year in Ochre, an anthology by the Ochre Coast Poets. 

I love you already 

Pregnancy test in the post 
spots of blood in the night 
talk of the flying doctor 

A bumpy road 
and a car full of strangers 
hours without words 

Voices outside 
the window 
of a motel room 

Alone 
with an air conditioner
and the hope of you 

Repetitive reading 
of signs and symptoms
fear so loud 

Another day 
stark, gray walls 
a bladder too full 

Blip blip blip 
on a screen 
reassurance 

In this moment 
all is well 
future unknown 


I chose to start the challenge on the 14th of July so the fifth day would be today, my daughter's birthday. 

This post is doubling as my post for Six Word Saturday - 

Happy Birthday to my fabulous daughter!!!

Today is also my Grandma's birthday. My day 1 poem in this challenge was about her. She was born on this day in 1918 which is also the day that Nelson Mandela was born!

My grandma holding Alysha

5 poems in 5 days - Day 4

I was excited and honoured to win first prize in the poetry section of the Positive Words Short Story and Poetry competition 2014 for my poem, Mosaic opportunity. 

Mosaic opportunity 

I chose 

from dusty shelves saucers without cups 

a lone salt shaker 

teapots missing lids 

wobbly stacks of plates 

each piece unique 

leftovers 

My heart, my mind 

I search through the rubble 

Smooth and shiny 

or dull and dappled 

beetroot reds and sunshine yellows 

the sparkle of a golden rim 

I imagine 

the breaking of the old 

to form something new 

The chosen will soon hold 

just a trace of its former purpose 

I watch as she wraps 

newspaper around my purchase 

layer after layer 

I almost tell her not to do her job 

that the breakage she aims to prevent 

is no concern 

I am not buying a plate 

or a saucer 

or a teapot missing a lid 

but the possibility of what could be

In parallel

I haven't posted any poems on here for a while. Inspiration for the following poem came from a park just around the corner from where I now live. 

In parallel 

A home for a time on each 
three streets 
ramble along inside me 
six, twenty and now 
parallel lines 
never to meet 

The six year old 
watching a kite fly
whilst shadowed by a cat 
at twenty playing soccer 
with a little brother 
and now passing through 
to meet a teenage daughter 

I meld myself 
in the middle 
of three parallel streets 
the once-green grass 
now a carpet of hearts 
and a leafless tree 
with forked branches 
reaches upwards 

In this park I am the page 

Today 
everything is different 
and nothing has changed 

            -----

The tree in the poem is no longer there at all apart from a stump. 

Here is a photo of it as it was when I wrote the poem. The only photos I have of it were taken using Hipstamatic.