mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
summer love that has to end
saying goodbye in September
broken hearts and stolen dreams
lovers mourn in muted screams
wishing they would not remember
autumn in its amber shades
masking truths too hard to bear
does the universe even care?
school becomes a new distraction
mothers scrimping for more pennies
children’s shoes will not endure
humbled with their meagre meal
peanut butter spread too thin
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
October ends in farce and fury
poverty clothed in Halloween
witches taunting mockingly
nary a princess or a queen
dreading winter, parents worry
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
December heaves a downy blanket
void of presents and empty cupboards
January weighs a thousand woes
hungry bellies and frozen toes
housing they cannot afford
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
social services cannot keep up
greedy leaders just turn away
their pockets lined with children's dreams
parents working night and day
politics drowning all their screams
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
blindly seeking for a break
depression hovers constantly
winter nearing to an end
melancholy lurking silently
hiding spring’s utopia
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
does the universe even care?
bound in darkness and despair
breaking through with fiery rage
some may find an ounce to share
fill them with ample courage
reaching out to one who cares
mid-season blues
like summer draughts that bring despair
someone out there really cares!
© Cheryl-Lynn ‘19-01-23
originally posted at TournesolDansUnJardin https://cheryllynnroberts.
info/2019/01/23/does-the-universe-even-care/
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Category: poetry
free at last (free verse)
– Oleg Oprisco
This photo challenge was posted at MindLoveMiserysMenagerie to inspire a writing of any genre…this was my attempt.
Leave me alone!
she shouted aloud
but her weak screams
could barely be heard.
it all started last year
when claiming to be
a new born vegan
her excuse not to hear
is that all you’re eating?!
First mother haggled
offering to drive her
to her favourite gym
if just for one meal
it seemed to work,
or so Mom thought
not noticing her
running to the loo
Leave me alone!
she’d shout aloud
but her weak screams
could barely be heard.
Then even at school
became a new problem
friends were no fool
noticing her body shrink
just wasting away
before their own eyes
They would then nag
offer their snack
others would rag
make her feel wacked
staring, eye rolling
she felt they were controlling
meddling in her affairs
giving her evil stares.
Leave me alone!
she shouted aloud
but her weak screams
could barely be heard.
in time there were no friends
only her boyfriend remained
pleading with her
worrying about her
until one day
an ultimatum
he had to say
either get help
or I can’t stay
Leave me alone!
she shouted aloud
but her weak screams
could barely be heard.
she turned to self-harm
to ease her pain
self-injury
her new found friend
she wrapped her wrists
to hide her scars
except when alone
she’d go for long walks
out into the woods
unraveling
long bindings
stretched to forever
she loved these walks
alone and free
just she and nature
it heard her pain
did not have to strain
when she would say
Leave me alone!
in her weak screams
the birds would chirp
the hare would dance
the doe would prance
her new found friends
free at last
she never returned
no longer an outcast
became one with nature
free at last
© Cheryl-Lynn 2016
pocketfull of blessings (haibun)
Blessings make life so easy…
Pocketful of blessings. That is what I am feeling today. The past two weeks I have been blessed with the presence of wonderful, compassionate and amazing people in person and virtually.
You know when you travel and pick up a pebble or rock to keep as a souvenir? Well, so far I have a pocketful of blessings. I am seeing more and more how we are more the same than we are different if you look deep into your heart. We are all from one amazing race…the Human Race.
(tanka)
nature’s blessings
starlings harmonize at dawn
scent of flowers
angelic arcs multi-hued
artist’s last strokes at dusk
© Tournesol ’15
Y is for Yesterday (Haibun)
Y is for yesterday like yesteryear, the past. Such a word brings up so many different meanings. You walk into the office ready for that meeting you had been prepping for the past three weeks; the administrative assistance looks at you wide-eyed when you ask which room was reserved for said meeting. Stammering somewhat, she tells you it was “yesterday”…palm to forehead you jammed it so hard you are left with a red mark for a few hours and a splitting headache.
Poets and writers use this word with such passion; we do too especially if we are mourning a lost love, we feel pain and sadness at first. Later, hopefully, we can reminisce of sweet memories of yesterday’s precious moments.
And one cannot …EVER…forget the first loves of your youth…
(tanka)
Ah pure innocence!
yesterday, was such a fool
butterfly wings
loving you with heart and soul
like no tomorrows
© Tournesol `15
Yesterday is passed some say and you should not look back but forward. Others say …
(haiku)
dwell not on bygones
live not for tomorrows
embrace the present
embrace the present
learn gems of yesterdays
enriching now
© Tournesol ’15
Yesterday certainly impacts on your now but does not have to define your tomorrows. This is where we do have choices in life…okay, not always a whole slew of great ones but there are still choices. That brings you from A to C and you discover you have more enticing choices that brings you to E and so on and so forth.
Yesterday you were hurt; perhaps you were dealt a difficult hand and you reach out for help somewhere out there, not always someone close, who teaches you strategies to play the right cards. Ooops, you messed up on a few moves…no problem, you learn from it and BOY oh BOY do you remember that move.
Yesterday conjures up memories of our childhood; times we were innocent with little care in the world. Yesterday brings up people who were in our lives we miss each day. Yesterday is sometimes bittersweet but knowing our sweet memories of loved ones will stay in our heart for all our tomorrows.
© Cheryl-Lynn 2015/04/29
Written for Blogging from A to Z Challenge
A song from yesteryear – Yesterday – Beatles
Love is in the air (haibun)
A story of promise and love…
© Kylli Sparrek
This was the second drought in three years and Father said he may have to sell the farm. Mother was up in arms since it was her father’s father’s father’s farm when they immigrated from Ireland. The winters here in Canada were cold particularly in St Jacobs and the summers were scorcher. Unlike the cooler summers in Ballybunion. Father would argue with Mother, “But Luv, we have to be reasonable! Your forefathers were wise enough to save their life savings and leave their land before the famine sucked them dry. Now we may just have to make a sage decision as well. Maybe it`s time to just settle with some cattle. There is always money in beef.” Mother was silent but her body clearly stated how upset she was with Father.
Ellie was not waiting any longer for Father`s decisions. She was leaving at the end of summer…
View original post 267 more words
A holiday haibun with a smile
Ah!! the holidays are among us, where many families and friends get together. Notice I said “many” but not “most” or “all”. For many people and children, it is a day like any other day except the stores are closed, restaurants are too…eateries and diners where one might want to kill a few hours before going back home alone. What happens to those soliciting for “spare change”? Well, now the only people at subway entrances coming and going are people “usually” going to meet family or a friends or just a friend to share a bit of holiday love…cheer? I worked Christmas Day early in the morning and was surprised to see so many people at 6am on the subway and then it dawned on me that many revellers from the night before were coming home on the earliest subway after 5:30am. No one looked cheery though except the bus driver when I wished him Merry Christmas. And why must everyone be cheerful on this day? That is being presumptuous now is it not? Sure, we can feel blessed, heart warmed by a card or smile that week, we can feel lucky to be healthy enough to get around be if on foot, car, on scooter or wheel chair and able in some way to get OUT of that condo/house/flat. Connecting with people even silently is connecting and that is what I felt sitting in the food court December 23rd.
I needed a few spices to add to my turkey dressing…it tastes almost like my grandmother’s…you see she never gave her recipes. But I taste, add a dash of this and that and taste several times until it seems pretty darn close AND my adult children love it! That IS the strongest motivator to cook anything. Bake? Um, not really because I am not much of a baker but I may try a pie or two this coming week…
I purchased the items at Loblaws and crossed the street to the mall that is situated right across the street from my home. I wanted to get a few small gifts to give to the adults since my majour gift for the past few years is my Christmas meal and gifts for the children, currently, 3 boys and 2 german shepherd sisters. Ah, yes, nice socks are always needed because almost everyone I know gets a sock or two eaten up by the dryer (where else does that lost sock go?) It was already five and I thought I might get a cuppa or get a nice buttery and salty giant pretzel and sit to people watch. A line up at Mr Pretzel made me think of those long dreaded line-ups, Christmas shopping and the whole commercialization or C.S. {croc of shit or capitalism snares…take your pick} so I moved over to Thai Express…one person waiting, so I thought, that would be fine. Wait, wait, wait…I ask the woman at the counter if they were closing, she shakes her head, no smile and does not take my order…wait, wait, wait…a woman goes up to the cash and gives her order…I am stunned, frustrated and just leave…why should I give my hard-earned money to a business who cares less, right? On to another fast food place, order to eat here and find a most comfortable place with chairs with armrests…wow! and relax. I love to eat but you know, it is a social thing…so it is nice to be among people even if we aren’t talking. Not much different from some couples we see sometimes who eat and never look up at each other or talk, not much different from a parent sitting with their teenager who thinks talking to anyone 10 years older is uncool…and the list goes on…so sometimes our own individual self is just fine.
I pretend to be looking at a text message on my camera and take a few photos of the group of men playing cards in front of me. It looked like a serious game and I wonder if they were regulars here. I mean, I see early morning regulars of older adults who come before the shops open to have their walk and by 9:30am. they are sipping coffee, reading the paper and many are in groups chatting about their plans for the day. But now it is after 5p.m. so I figure they are a group of men who are single for a few hours with their wives busy shopping or cooking a day before the eve of Christmas.
I am not much of a card player and wonder what game they are playing with soooo many cards. The only game I know of with that many cards is Canasta but I doubt these men are playing this. When they end the game one of the men who was just watching folds up his book where I wonder if he is entering scores for later payment…I wonder. Now that would be a cool story, eh?
Walking out the food court, I pass couples sitting, staring…no one talking, a woman with her little girl and the woman looks totally exhausted, a bunch of teens giggling and taking pics of each other and at the entrance of La Baie, in the comfortable overstuffed armchairs, two elderly men reading a news paper and one either sleeping or daydreaming. I wonder what their stories are. Being in the suburbs, people are often living with family…but there are many alone and I wonder if aloneness is more painful here or in the city. In the city we are closer to one another; in the burbs there are so many different stories but closeness and collaboration may be in clusters…I don’t know. Where I live in my 8 apartment building, the only people who were friendly lived on the second floor. Three different tenants and they were the ONLY tenants who talked to me, helped me with heavy parcels and always asked how I was….they were from Portugal, Florianópolis, Brazil and the most recent from around here. My next door neighbour never says hello unless I do first, his 20+ yr old son smiles and moves off even when I trying to lug my 17-inch tires with hubs to my car…no, “need any help”…nope…and that same neighbour who asked our landlord to take my parking spot so his son could take his…yeah, well, I must say it is not that friendly here either. Walking to the grocery store last week with bags in hand, that same neighbour just drove by me…could have saved me a few minutes …oh well.
As I left the mall to come home, I used my usual short cut walking down the tiny slope before getting to the sidewalk across the street from my building. It was not slippery at all but my ankles just gave up…down on I felt flat on the sidewalk trying to hurry to lift myself off the sidewalk but no feelings but pain in my ankles, and my right knee was already throbbing from the fall and I knew my left knee was bad enough…{had not knelt on it since last May!}…so wait a few moments, whimpering like a big baby…hearing cars go by and whimpering more for cars who had not EVEN slowed down. All I needed was a hand to get me up and I knew I could cross the street just fine…slowly …but fine. But no cars stopped even if my winter coat was white…so puleeze do not tell me they did not see a human being flat on the sidewalk. I was careful as I worried I might fall again but this time on the street with my luck no one would stop…even after.
I made it home feeling so sorry for myself, limping and then examining the damage when I got home thankful I wore an old pair of leggings since that big hole could not be mended now. Sure the aches and pains came later stronger but what hurt the most was the “laissez-faire” of folks…have we come to this now in our world? That makes me very sad and not safe at all.
Christmas Eve was lovely, eating good food…{well, harrumph…I made it (smiles) } and it was nice resting on the sofa admiring the fire, listening to the children play with my son, having my daughter take care of the planning, picking me up, setting the table and taking care of timing everything so we could all eat and serving as hostess…thankful for my grandsons who were amazing considering the hype and anxiety before Christmas morning…grateful to my son who seemed to have fun playing with the boys and my son-in-law who is an amazing person, man, partner and son.
The next day I left for work at dawn and hoped I would get a few pics of the sunrise before getting into the office at 6:45 a.m. …but nope…it remained dark. Well, then at least I made up for lack of nature’s beauty with an amazing sunset at 3:45 p.m…so gosh darn early!! on my way home.
Today I am relishing the peaceful feel of the day and missing my mom; wishing I could have been there more, said more things to her, yet I think she is hearing and feeling it now; however sometimes the silence is deafening and wonder how it is for many who have no choice but to sit in this painful dark place day after day even during the holidays. There can be many reasons … financially strapped, family and friends estrangement, a recent loss, a loss long ago that ripped their spirit, physical illness, mental illness and the latter sometimes being such an invisible disease no one can understand…unfortunately, too many do not try.
The next time you are out, if you see someone alone why not smile and say hello, offer him or her a good day…offer your seat with a smile…open a door with a smile…you have no idea how that may enrich a person’s day! Our good memories are what soothe us, wrap us up like honey for a bee, warm our hearts like a duvet cover and make us smile like looking at a newborn baby or puppy tilt his head to the side.
Blessing and happy holidays to this amazing WordPress community and my readers. ((((((hugs)))))
Cheryl-Lynn
kindness
heartwarming like a duvet
honey to a bee
© Clr 2014/12/26
Dementia’s nightly visits (free verse)
Shadows blur my vision
cast darkness on my thoughts
who are they?
what are they?
Am I growing old?
senility down the road?
Maman, is this
how it all began?
silent shadows casted
on my path,
first at night
when I am sleeping
sneaky and sly
so no one will see
only ingrain
uncertainties
in my feeble mind.
shadows at night
howling in silence
laughing and mocking
into senescence…
At first there`s only one
a silent shadow
I thought my angel
but it had an eerie
feel about it
could not be an angel
and then more intrude
pretending to come for tea
Maman, what was it like
for you in the dead of night
when you phoned me
you really weren`t kidding
someone was really there!
Forgive me, Maman,
I see them now
I hate their visits
I stay awake to ward
them away
and still they invade
my mind, my soul,
and my sanity.
(c) Tournesol ’14-11-08
MindlovemiserysMenagerie Shadow People
Stop the Stigma 