Poetry

Cheers to Us (A Poem, and Some Words)

/ Katie / 25 Comments

Cheers to us!
To you and me,
to your guitar and my suede boots,
my voice and your white hat.
To the music
we make together,
and the laughs.
As seasons pass and time goes on,
I’m lucky every day that
you’re my dad.

My dad starts salvage radiation for prostate cancer later this month, and I’ve been thinking about him and holding him in my heart these last several days as his treatment plan becomes clear. He’s the happiest, most friendly person you’ll ever meet, and watching him struggle with this diagnosis has been heartbreaking. But he’s also strong and brave, and he’s going to show cancer why you don’t mess with a hillbilly and his guitar.

I know it’s odd to write this post now with Mother’s Day coming up here in the US, but cancer doesn’t choose a convenient time. So, this one’s for him. I’ll write one for my mom – who is going to be with him every step of the way – next week. But for now, please leave a few kind words for my sweet dad if you have a minute. He’ll see them and appreciate them, and so will I.

Pink Moon Lucy Blue (A Poem)

/ Katie / 12 Comments

Watching your little girl play so carefree,
you think one day
I hope I can be
just like that.
But once upon a time you
were already a child too,
twirling and dancing under a twilight sky,
reaching for a mother’s steady hand
and knowing it would be there.
It hits you right where you stand:
Your time hasn’t gone.
It’s just moved on,
come full circle like the bright pink moon.
And like the moon,
it will turn again soon.
The well will never run dry
of daughters made mothers,
of mothers and daughters and the love they share,
heavy as a whole heart and light as air.

We Fight Still (A Poem for Women’s History Month)

/ Katie / 4 Comments

They refused to take no
and then watch others go
make decisions for us.
They fought for our daughters, their daughters,
daughters and mothers all,
that our world be equal and just,
that our voices ring true and free
from every blue mountain, red hill, green valley.
We fight still.

************

It’s been way too long since I’ve participated in one of Rebecca’s poetry challenges over at Fake Flamenco, and this month’s challenge is a really good one. You should join in, too!

I’ve posted many poems for Women’s History Month, but this one – this year – it just hits different. I have a little girl, and I want everything for her. I want a world where she can be whatever she wants to be. And where her voice can be as loud, powerful, and important as anyone else’s. This poem was inspired by the women, past and present, who’ve fought for women’s rights all over the world. We’ve fought for our right to speak – to vote, to be in the room, to have a seat at the table, to lead – for generations, and it makes me angry that we still have to. But for Lucy, for all of us, I will fight, just like the many women who came before me.

Diabolical (A Poem)

/ Katie / 4 Comments

What is evil, really?
A malicious act of agency, but also
an abject lack of empathy –
to accept the inhuman with complacency,
to offer hate and meanness gleefully,
to look upon the farcical face of cruelty and answer back:
“But the economy!”
History has a knack for becoming judge and jury.
When its eyes turn to you, what will your children’s children’s children see?

Women (A Poem)

/ Katie / 19 Comments

Here’s good:
There is something so surreal and so absolutely,
achingly,
magically,
transcendently beautiful
about watching my mama rock
her granddaughter – my daughter – to sleep.
My heart can barely hold it.
And I know:
It’s not the wars that will keep us safe,
that will keep us going.
It’s the women.