Welcome back to This Photo Wants to be a Poem, a weekly writing prompt that I borrowed from Laura Purdie Salas’s Fifteen Words or Less. I was not here last week, so Linda Mitchell took the reins with a beautiful photo from Amanda Watts. I was busy last week with the arrival of my 4th grandchild, June Margaret. You can read about that experience here.
On Christmas Day, my husband and I were separated for the first Christmas in 40 years. He traveled to New Orleans on Christmas Day to meet his new grandchild and have a bowl of gumbo. Baby June is a big baby, and her fingers are long. I marveled at them as Jeff (Papère) held her tiny hand. This is a more personal image than I usually post. Forgive me, I’m smitten.
Papère’s Hand
Christmas package
Margaret Simon, draft
wrapped in tiny fingers
perfectly peaceful
Take a peaceful moment for yourself to write, remember, marvel and share. If you are able, write an encouraging comment for other writers.
Reflections on the Teche 
Oh, Margaret—this is endlessly peaceful, sweet, and beautiful. My husband and I aware awaiting our first in April, and the joy is imaginable although I’m certain even less imaginable than it will be, when real. It also seems a time when I am uncharacteristically (but understandably) spending time in memories of our son’s birth and babyhood and the deep joy of it all. And the equal joy of knowing that the process moves on…
“Perfectly peaceful” truly captures the moment!
With one tiny touch
Two hearts joined
Forever
Ah, two hearts joined is perfect.
the littlest hand explores a new world
finds warmth
before a heart completes its beat
the littlest hand knows:
rest here
one day this hand will dance
one day this hand will wipe away tears
one day this hand that clings to mine
will be the warmth I seek
before my heart completes its beat
my aging hand will know:
rest here
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
December 28, 2022
Oh I love this. It’s hard to imagine the future but one day the roles may be reversed.