January has been hard.  Overwhelming happiness quickly dissolved into grief and sadness and the pace of life right now just keeps pushing us all forward into the next things.  There has not been a whole lot of time to process the sadness, nor much time to dwell in the happiness, and so at least for me both of these come in waves that overtake silent moments in which I usually dissolve into tears that recognize either end of the emotional gamut.

Today though, just a poem.  A poem to dwell in happiness and memories that I never want to forget.

Happy Birthday

Toes in the sand

Wind on our faces, smiling out

At the waves breaking crisply.

Cartwheels.

Sunbathing.

Damming small, shallow streams that only

Grow wider as we added more

Driftwood.

 

Driftwood and Seagulls.

Barnacles, anemones, starfish and clams.

Always finding a hole.

Knee-high rubber boots and rain jackets

Digging until…

The tide came in.

 

Watching –

Through the clear container

In the garage, as the clams spent the next day spitting out all of that –

Sand.

 

Baby oil sunscreen.

Blueberries for pancakes.

Lemon trees gone wild.

Oreos and Rummy,

Kahlua and coffee,

Marshmellows in my Hot Chocolate

So many rounds of Rummy.

 

Strappy shoes and bikinis,

Shopping just to try on all the clothes.

French twists and bobby pins

Lipstick and curlers

Night cream and dangley earrings,

“I bet I can get ready first!”

 

Skorts and Jumpers

Skip-it’s

Hula-hoops while singing “Mony, Mony”

“Twist and Shout”.

 

Foggy?

Drive up the river to find that

Sunshine.

Life-jackets and house boats

Tie them up.

 

Blackberry picking until

Our arms were purple.

Jam and cobbler.

Pepsi and Sunflower Seeds.

and

I love you forever.