DUSTING THE PAN
A distant voice echoed through Boulder Canyon.
''Consider the wind as life's energy dancing inside you now.''
I tried to search for the speaker but noticed I was...formless,
Shapeless, cold.....dead. When did this happen?
I remember setting of on a beautiful spring day to hike
The Flatirons, but now it appears I have become the ghost
I'd sensed (more than once) plucking memories from air
Trying to reveal everything I'd never said.
So this is how the dead pretend they are still alive....
One drags up a chair, unfolds the Sunday Times and begins
To read. No matter the lamp is missing as well as his eyes.
A group of them gathers around the T.V. No matter the screen
Is silent and black as midnight. A small family gathers at the
Dining room table to use the china they'd saved for company
And special guests. No matter the plates are empty as they
Speak their lifeless words and chew the tasteless air.
I suppose my beliefs about resurrection are not important now,
But I always knew Mother would be the first one up...
Unsettling the pot for coffee, dusting the pan for biscuits,
Lighting a cozy fire so we'd know we were home again.
What IS important, is that I remember my promise.
I'd promised to return after death. Not to haunt, frighten or
proffer guilt in any way, but to live with purpose and intent
All of those ordinary moments I had forgotten to notice before.
~~~
Written for Moon's Follow the Dream challenge
Phrase: consider the wind
And for Sunlight's Catch the Soaring Star challenge
Phrase: life's energy is dancing inside you now
~~~
By Sharon Peeples
© 2008 Sharon Peeples
(All rights reserved)
| |