This poem was inspired by my soul friend Elaine. I thank her for the inspiration and the healing that I can feel as a result of writing this.
SNAPSHOTS
“Do you remember…” she asked me as we sat together over 40 years later,
Describing my blueberry stained, 3-year-old face
I wish I did remember
It sounds just wonderful!
I am left with a patchwork of disconnected snapshots of that time -
The “scary house”
Mumma’s wonderful winged shawl
A plum pit in my too-small, 4-year-old throat
Dr. Dog, who made a house call to our front porch and never left
The concert shell and the smell of moist evening grass
Catching toads
Wild snap dragons, which still snap me right back to those summers
All this time, I thought all I had left were those patchy snapshots
But my body-mind-spirit fills in the blanks