Rommy shares this quote from Joana Walsh's essay "My Life As A Goddard Movie" as inspiration for our poems ~~
“The most expensive garment you’ll ever own is your own flesh.”
Thanksgiving arrives the way it always does
the clatter of dishes, stories we tell
our first born carves the turkey
steam rises in praise, laughter shakes loose
we pass plates and memories with the quiet understanding
being here is never guaranteed
The soft ache in my bones reminds me
how long I've lived in this skin
paid for with every stumble, scar
every winter settled in my marrow
every determined spring pulling me up
Costly as my flesh has been
it has carried me all the way
to this warm room, this crowded table
this moment where love exists
in the simplest ways, passed hand to hand
like bread
Love this Mama! Looking forward to our heavenly feast, feeling blessed we can be together!
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is really nice when the relatives eat together. Sounds like you've a missing one now. We too, a son-in-law and a sister-in-law. Hearts and COVID got them both.
ReplyDeleteSo, Happy Thanksgiving enjoying your day. Our daughter has invited the family.
What a beautiful poem Helen. We all should be grateful for being alive.
ReplyDeletewow what a beautiful poem Helen I loved it
ReplyDeleteI adore this interpretation of the prompt! The tenderness rings so true to me. I have a few more aches than I did at 40, but they remind me that I'm still alive and how there's so much more living I want to do.
ReplyDeleteHappy thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem written by a beautiful lady. Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your day with your beautiful family....Rall
ReplyDeleteIt is a very nicely imagined poem. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteI have the feeling that the years leave carbon prints in the trees, so does the winter in our marrows.
What a lovely poem! We don't have Thanksgiving here in Australia, and I'm always a bit bemused by it, but the way you present it here makes perfect sense of it for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stunning poem of gratefulness.
ReplyDelete"every winter settled in my marrow
ReplyDeleteevery determined spring pulling me up"
and then the ending. A very endearing, heart rendered, honest poem!