"...to carry away memories brought for the forgetting
on one thousand one auspicious origami birds
whispering over chilled salmon, ripe fruit
suggesting the fertility of the afternoon."
from the poem, "One thousand one wedding cranes" 1998
Brush Strokes on eighty
Paint stroke #1
a shock of alone
arrives in late evening
when there’s chill on the house
and silence lingers with cobwebs,
it doesn’t startle, doesn’t break open,
it stands still, face to me, stark
but alive and assured
seven beats of frozen silence
facing my self’s new countenance
reflected back in alone’s solid stance
i let go daily, but cannot revive lost loves,
cannot embody my disappeared agility,
standing side by jowl with another
does not assuage this solitary singleness
i am alone
my attentive children surround me
with pleasures of inclusion
but i live a secret
they cannot share
i am alone
and we have settled in together
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Copyright © Sharon Lopez Mooney, “Brush Strokes on Eighty”, originally published in The Cold Lake Anthology, ed. Lauren McGovern, Janet McKeehan-Medina, Amy Place, Elaine Pentaleri, Nancy Volkers, Burlington Writers Workshop, Vermont, 2023