This past week has been a lesson, a remembrance of mortality. My close friend’s mother is dying from cancer. Hard and fast. So today, I would simply like to offer this poem that I wrote about my mother — a warm memory of her before her own death, 15 years ago.
\nfaint aurora
\nShe wanted to show me Aurora Borealis
\na close friend from her past
\nLighting up her old Alaskan nights
\nwith whiskey and a rock star boyfriend.
\nA lifetime later
\nI am a small child,
\nsetting my alarm clock for five a.m.
\nI bundle in mittens and scarf
\nand meet her in the kitchen.
\nSilently, she hands me a cup of tea
\nopens the back door of the house
\nthe screen creaks behind us.
\nI follow the silhouette of her big down coat
\nthe sound of snow crunching under her boots.
\nwhispers and gestures
\nas to not scare away pre-dawn
\nWe crouch near the garden
\nI don\u2019t want to look up until she does
\nchristening our sky with the first gaze
\nWhite streaks of Northern light tear through space
\nreflecting off my mother\u2019s morning pallor.
\nShe points to faint Aurora
\nand subtle Borealis
\nShe names constellations
\nDo you see it?
\nI always say yes
\nI want to see everything she has seen.
\nCollecting my thoughts with Big Dipper
\nheld in Virgo\u2019s celestial cloak.
\nName Me
\nhere in this luminous phenomenon.
\nI quiver in love for her
\nShe feels me shake and thinks I\u2019m cold
\nBut I am warm with being chosen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past week has been a lesson, a remembrance of mortality. My close friend’s mother is dying from cancer. Hard and fast. So today, I would simply like to offer this poem that I wrote about my mother — a warm memory of her before her own death, 15 years ago. faint aurora She wanted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":333,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\n