POETRY |
Sun Caressed Lily - Photo by K. S. Goldman
2 POEMS:
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Sun caressed lily, responds, faces her suitor, tenderly undressed. Sweet lilac perfume, tempting naive hummingbird, seduction complete. Sunday afternoons, among tangled, moist sheets, dozing, lingering. |
The Silver Spaghetti Spoon
(Packing Up My Mother's Life)
Photo by the Author
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When you turned into a hundred rooms,
I returned each month as a door that opened only once. ~ Yanyi, “Landscape with a Hundred Turns” |
My mother’s vision is slowly dissolving.
No longer safe, she is leaving her home of 56 years.
We pack her life into cardboard boxes. Unearth
forgotten treasures, each holds
a bit of fragile family history.
We exhume family celebrations
when her three sisters were still alive.
Sunday evenings
at their mother’s table,
that snaked down the hall
with each new family member,
an umbilical cord
connecting us to our matriarch.
We sort. I listen.
Each item is greeted with the same deliberation:
Shall she keep it?
Who could use it?
Do I need it?
Among her sterling silver, a spaghetti serving spoon
glimmers. Purchased for a special pasta dinner.
She recalls when it was used. Sees her full
independent life reflected in its surface.
“I will keep this.”
No longer safe, she is leaving her home of 56 years.
We pack her life into cardboard boxes. Unearth
forgotten treasures, each holds
a bit of fragile family history.
We exhume family celebrations
when her three sisters were still alive.
Sunday evenings
at their mother’s table,
that snaked down the hall
with each new family member,
an umbilical cord
connecting us to our matriarch.
We sort. I listen.
Each item is greeted with the same deliberation:
Shall she keep it?
Who could use it?
Do I need it?
Among her sterling silver, a spaghetti serving spoon
glimmers. Purchased for a special pasta dinner.
She recalls when it was used. Sees her full
independent life reflected in its surface.
“I will keep this.”
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A native of San Francisco, Kathryn Santana Goldman’s interest in poetry began when she was working in ICU as a registered nurse. She used this practice to process the variety of stressful scenarios experienced. Over the years, she has continued to experiment with different types of writing such as short stories and plays. As an avid traveler, Kathryn has become skilled at capturing photographs about the diversity she encounters. Three years ago, she began to combine her love of photography with her writing by using the images she captures as seeds for her poems. She continues to explore new ways to use these two art forms to share her experience with family and friends.
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