bird grabs a worm fills nestlings’ open beaks a mother’s love
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looking up with doe eyes her big brother
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Walking to the school dance, they giggle at the cute boys near the band stage. One has that bad boy look with tight jeans and a pack of Export-A’s at his shoulder under that white T. His liquid blues dance when she walks towards the band.
naive and trusting he holds the small of her back slow dancing
After a week of spring thaw, winter resumes its course. Walking on the soft powdery snow, she shuffles slowly using its step as a human broom…swish, swish. The soft powder lifts lightly above her leather boots like a shower of white sparkling dust. Dust with spots of diamonds glistening in the soft light of the street lamps.
He was ten years old, who did quite well in school. He was third in his class, captain of his soccer team and the light of his mom’s heart. Right after school he would sometimes pick up a book for persons who were visually impaired, at the local library , for his gran; she was usually chatting with the neighbours downstairs. He’d hug his grandmother and rush up to the fourth floor to their one bedroom apartment. His mom and gran shared the bedroom and he slept on the pull-out couch which was fine by him so he felt like the man of the house watching the front door…just in case.
His mother was sitting at the kitchen table with her first cup of black coffee of the day and smoke was curling from her cigarette up to the ceiling. He loved her long auburn locks that fell down the middle of her back. He kissed her on both cheeks and munched on his after school snack, chatting with her about his day. She always seemed so interested in every word he said…smiling with her heart-shaped lips.
a mother’s love
stencils her son’s face,
ink of her heart
Someday, he hoped to graduate and get a good job to take care of his family, so his mom wouldn’t have to work at that factory all night long.
a mother’s love
shielding like a lioness
genuine and strong
I witnessed an act of kindness and an act of consciousness today. My heart fills with such joy and love it is bursting at the seams and the only way to establish some equilibrium to continue my shift at work, I am writing this narrative. This will be my offering to Karuna’s challenge on Love.
Today I was waiting for the bus and it was bitter cold with the winds felt like minus 20; I held my hood under my chin squinting now and then to see if the bus was turning the corner soon. A young man was walking towards me and stooped to pick a plastic bottle on the road in front of me. He went on his way with two items in his left hand. I looked at him in awe! If we all did this regularly, wouldn’t our world be cleaner? brighter? prettier? What an environmentally conscious person this was!!
Later I received a phone call from a young man who wanted advice on how to help a homeless teen he had met on the street. It certainly is NOT a day to be panhandling on the street for anyone today. He was concerned for this young person and wanted to know if there were shelters I could recommend. I suggested he try Covenant House since youths can stay up to three months and counsellors on staff might be able to help this youth settle into housing and get support. I also recommended our phone service since our phone lines were free and anonymous. Any information shared with us would never be reported since we do not have call display on our phones and we cannot trace calls either. All a youth has to do is dial from any public pay phone and it’s free and open 24/7.
I could not help but thank this caller for being so compassionate and generous he was for helping this youth and offering to bring him to get a hot meal. He said, it was just part of his training in advocating for youths. But I disagreed because this innate, it is not learned…compassion was part of who he was.
I am filled with so much love seeing people around me who are so giving and conscious on how we are all interconnected.
compassion
thrives like an epidemic
love has no borders
Bitter cold greets her as steps out to catch her bus. Branches lay on the lawn that had snapped off the tree by the patio. It was as if Mother Nature was no longer weeping but in a state of rage.
biting wind
swirls into a raised fist
grieves in fury
She struggles to be on time at work but for dinners, parties, outings, she is usually late. She prefers to say, fashionably late. Being a night person and working late shifts, means late morning rise, working into the night.
nightly reflections
slow-dancing with her muse
kissing dawn goodnight