So I Slow

 

     So I Slow

Some pain

(such as youth yearning thwarted

love betrayed

dreams dashed etc)

is all emotion. But other pain

such as this hard lump on me

tangled up in muscles and motion

is all reality- sharp smart

cringe crippling

no matter what

so I slow...

slow to savor

today

coffee. egrets.

rain on the creek.

yesterday's walk outside

with summer wind.

So I slow, hoping

I'll wake after surgery

and my heart will be strong enough

to take me through old age

or at least another year.

  poem copyright ©2023 Anne Selden Annab

Reprieve

      Reprieve

There is PAIN
always

but there is also
beauty...

The sun rise spurge
in every shade of rose-
and orange, as if flowers
and fruit and fish
taught dawn
what to do.

Daylight discloses
the colorful wood duck
and then mallards
with their mates
drifting upstream
dabbling.

Sycamore leaf boats
float past, as a chick-a-dee
flits up to perch
on a spindly twig
nearby.

My own movement
so often curtailed
is but one tiny red berry
on the burning bush.

Later on a drive
I chance upon
the startling bright
golden light
of an autumn tree
brimming with
luminescence.

poem copyright ©2015 Anne Selden Annab