
Visiting my mother is filled with emotions for me. Bittersweet is a good word because she’s still here with us, but in many ways she is far from us. Her Alzheimer’s is advancing slowly at this point. Each visit she’s thinner and less able. Yet, she knows me and loves me and tries so hard to talk to me. This morning I will visit her before I drive back to Louisiana. Will this be the last time? Who knows?
At the hotel, I looked out at a beautiful sunrise. It reminded me of days sitting on the back porch with Mom and Dad looking at the lake behind their house. How I long for those easy days. There was always a heron that came to perch. All of these thoughts came when I read Brittany’s prompt to write about nature using 3 different colors.
Sunrise
I wake to sky color–
golden-white-lined gap
in purple-blue clouds
where sun rays sparkle
through
like angel wings.
Bittersweet grey clouds
hover high
like heaven’s shroud
reflected in heron’s stealth.
I imagine you next to me
with the news (all ghastly)
and your coffee mug steaming.
We sit in silence,
the silence of years between us
looking for the heron.
Margaret Simon, draft
The Kidlit Progressive Poem continues its ride through spring with Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link.









