Zen Oleary: For Josephine

What is this strange dance
we're doing with you taking the lead?
You are daily sliding closer
to the leafy edge of mind,
to that space without words
where thoughts become wisps
to chase around corners
before they vanish,
only thoughts run faster than you,
and take one-way tickets
on a bus out of town,
leave before you can catch
their name.

"My memory is the length of a sentence,"
you say and smile as you tell me
as if I didn't know,
but a sentence is long enough
for a sunbeam to flood the room,
for a mockingbird to sing
from the orange tree,
for your face to light up with a smile,
for Jodi to puppy dance on hind legs,

You used to argue philosophy,
make tree houses from
books in your mind
and travel far away like
a wandering sunbeam looking
for a place to shine.
Now you settle in,
an autumn sunflower
dancing in the wind
at the corner of the garden
under the banana tree.
You sway in jasmine scented air,
nod to red hibiscus flowers and
follow the sky dance of swallows.

You drift, serene, to a wordless sleep
in the warmth of this ok afternoon
filled with a cardinal's song.

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Zen Oleary

Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Zen Oleary

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World