My Mind Drifts . . .

My mind drifts . . .

as I’m listening to Carole King and James Taylor

singing Will You Love Me Tomorrow,

a Special on PBS tonight.

My mind drifts . . . 

remembering working on that new song last week

wishing my arm muscle wasn’t so inflamed,

so I could record it

talk/sing in those poetic lyrics. 

My mind drifts back . . .

to the conversation this afternoon,

about how important it is for our children,

even now, to think well of us,

and losing weight is part of that.

I remember Mother losing a lot of weight

to make her first visit to me

when I became sorority president.

She was smiling that day

happy with herself,

in a new navy blue two piece print suit,

I’d never seen before.

My mind drifts . . .

to the poems, we wrote in the booth

at Big City Cafe today 

after Regina read an essay from the book

Woman in Front of the Sun by Judith Ortiz Cofer, 

about women needing writing mentors, and inspirations.

We picked seven words from the book to write a poem:

 quilt, precious, whispers, muted, gate, refusal, encounter.

I dig out my writing journal from the book bag

 and copy out my poetic creation:

Fling open the gate of old age!

precious, muted,

whispers woven into a quilt

a refusal to be neither less than,

nor, more than

the next encounter.

~~

stay tuned . . .