Simple

The Iron Lady

Keeping up appearances
for the benefit of others
is exhausting,
particularly when
your own needs
are put on the back burner,
leaving you
a sink full of pots
with scorched bottoms.

~ Mk Michaels,  2014

Little Girl, Lost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Running freely,

arms stretched wide.

Laughing loudly,

without inhibition

High on life,
trusting completely

in the perfection of love. 

WHAM! 

Without warning, the landscape is unfamiliar.

A recurring dream since childhood of

being in my neighborhood,

but recognizing nothing.

Primal fear rising

“What if I never find my way home again?”

 

~ Mk Michaels, 2014

 

 

 

 

This Life of Mine

This life of mine

isn’t for lightweights,

although I’d hardly consider myself a heavyweight.

 

Shouldering the heaviness of

my children,

our home,

my grief,

their grief

all in parallel with PTA meetings,

keeping the refrigerator stocked,

toilet paper supplied,

mountains of laundry cleaned,

 worries over potholes,

and a neighbor who wants to start a home-daycare,

is too much…

some days.

 

Forget finding time for what feeds me;

my garden,

creating beauty,

my relationship,

growing food,

sitting still to watch our chickens free range

in the back field,

being quiet.

Sometimes, I find time to write,

like today.

 

There are times I want to put it all down

and find comfort in the arms of an angels

who would feed me buttered toast and tea,

stroking my hair while I wept,

and hand me tissues,

the good kind with the lotion in them.

Angels, you see, are in short supply

and most, no matter how kind hearted they are,

fight their own battles and are tired too.

But I don’t judge and usually I don’t complain because

without exception

everything I have ever judged has come full circle

to bite me in the ass.

So I try very hard not to judge

lest I have another pound of flesh

bitten off.

 

When my ‘woe is me, I don’t have an angel today’ pity party

becomes too disgusting for even me to bear,

I remember a family I met in Vietnam.

They lived in a place of great beauty

but were so poor,

they had little they could call their own.

They sold fruit to tourists who would likely

let the fruit go shamefully to waste

for fear of contracting a stomach bug.

This mother, father, son, and baby daughter had so little

but were happy, their smiles sincere,

their time spent outside in their

rustic floating village.

 

When it feels I am near a breaking point

gratitude keeps me levelheaded.

I could stand in any single room of my home and have more

at my fingertips than that family

would have in a year … or a lifetime.

Clean running water,

food, clothing, and schools for my children,

a computer, paper, pencils, and all the books I could want

which afford me the supreme luxury

of endless knowledge and words.

I cannot lose sight of these things

even when my angels are busy battling their demons

and go missing.

 

~ Mk Michaels, 2014